LOSING VICE-PRESIDENTIAL candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. has asked the Supreme Court to defer the submission of comments on the recount of votes in three pilot provinces, where the lead of Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo has further increased by 15,000.

Mr. Marcos, in an omnibus motion filed Oct. 23, asked the high court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to allow him to photocopy the “voluminous documents” on the recount report for him to comply with their order to comment.

“(C)onsidering that the photocopying of the reports has yet to commence, protestant Marcos is likewise constrained to move for the deferment of his deadline to submit his comments on the said report/s on the revision and appreciation of votes until the requested photocopying of documents reports is granted and completed,” he said in the motion.

Mr. Marcos, a former senator, also designated representatives for the photocopying and noted they are willing to comply with rules and guidelines to be set by the tribunal regarding their request.

The PET on Oct. 15 ordered the release of the recount results in Iloilo, Camarines Sur, and Negros Oriental, the three pilot provinces chosen by Marcos where he claimed election fraud was observed.

The court also ordered Mr. Marcos and Ms. Robredo to submit within 20 days their comments on the report as well as submit their memoranda on various issues and matters relating to Mr. Marcos’ motion for an annulment of election results in three provinces in Mindanao.

The Oct. 15 resolution states that the lead of Ms. Robredo against Mr. Marcos widened by more than 15,000 votes after the revision and appreciation of ballots in the three pilot provinces.

Ms. Robredo’s lead increased to 278,566 from 263,473.

Despite this, the PET still required the parties to comment on the report before it rules on the effects of the recount results to the second cause of action of Mr. Marcos, which is to recount votes in 27 other provinces.

PET also said the order to comment on the annulment of election results in parts of Mindanao, the third cause of action filed by Mr. Marcos, is to meet “due process requirement.”

Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa, who wrote the recount report, and retired senior associate justice Antonio T. Carpio dissented on the Oct. 15 resolution, both saying the election protest should be dismissed under Rule 65 of the PET Rules.

Rule 65 allows the tribunal to require the person who filed the election protest to indicate three pilot provinces “best exemplifying frauds or irregularities” for recount. If after the examination of ballots and the tribunal sees that the protestee “will most probably fail to make out his case,” the protest may be dismissed, without consideration to the other provinces. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

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