Leni’s election woes

Neither Leni nor her lawyer has proof that Marcos failed to gain substantial vote recovery as their claim is based on what they say is their copy of the recount figures that came from their revisors.

Leni Robredo and her election lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, have been busy airing their propaganda spiel after the Supreme Court (SC) failed to dismiss outright the poll protest filed by Bongbong Marcos against the Vice President, and instead gave the parties 20 days to comment on the issue.

Robredo, through her lawyer, was quick to claim that Marcos in seeking to have the votes in three areas in Mindanao nullified may stand as proof of his failure to obtain “substantial recovery” in the vote recount in the earlier three pilot provinces.

Macalintal stressed in an interview that “the fact that you’re asking for another three provinces only shows that we won in the three pilot provinces” — Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

Leni and her lawyer insist that Marcos was unable to gain substantial recovery from the three pilot provinces, and because he failed to do so, he now asks the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), that Macalintal calls “Mr. PET,” for three more provinces’ votes to be annulled when under the rules, the lawyer claimed, only three provinces are allowed.

Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin, who is set for retirement, said, “It was clear that a majority of the Court wanted action to be taken on the report. Before we could take any action, we had to solicit the comment of the parties. That is only a fair part of due process and so we came out with that resolution to require the parties to comment.” The retiring chief added that by giving the parties copies of the report on the revision and appreciation of ballots, the PET may seek comment on the findings.

As Bersamin put it: “Findings are more or less conclusions. It would not be good if we did not allow or let the parties to comment first before we officially act on the report. It’s a unilateral report.”

Leni is clearly unhappy at the outcome. But the problem appears to be the fact that, as of this time, neither Leni nor her lawyer has proof that Marcos failed to gain “substantial vote recovery” as their claim is based on what they say is their copy of the recount figures that came from their revisors, which is hardly the official vote recount figures.

Copies of the official recount will be furnished by the Court to the parties, but it is also to be noted that the High Court spokesman, Brian Hosaka, mentioned to reporters that the report from the SC is different from the recount copy given by the revisors to the parties.

Each party’s lawyers will always be at odds with their arguments on the claimed PET rules of a protestant having recourse to only three provinces.

However, whether Leni and her lawyer like it or not, the SC has ordered the release of the result of the initial recount and has given the two sides 20 days to comment on the report and issues on Marcos’ appeal to annul three provinces in Maguindanao.

This does not sit well with Leni and her lawyers, who insisted that the two dissenters in the PET, Justices Antonio Carpio and Benjamin Caguioa, were correct in their dissent as they voted for the dismissal of the protest.

Unfortunately for Macalintal, the two justices were outvoted by nine justices.

Leni really has to rely on an all-out propaganda to put a stop to the public perception of her having cheated to win the vice presidency, and there was initial evidence of the electoral fraud during the initial recount, such as the inexplicable water-logged ballots found during the recount, and many more “irregularities” such as the changes in interpretation of the shading percentage of the ballots being counted.

What made it worse was that the ponente assigned by the Court is a known appointee of the yellow president. This is unfortunate, given the political climate where the yellows and yellow-stained personalities are hardly seen as present-day political heroes. Worst is the public perception of the yellows having cheated during the 2016 vice-presidential race, also due to Smartmatic and the Commission on Elections caught manipulating the vote count, while having a long vote blackout with Leni suddenly emerging with millions by way of votes in the early morning.

That perception still persists, especially as the senatorial elections last May this year saw all the yellow-tinged candidates, including senatorial bet Macalintal, losing the race completely.

But what should be remembered is that more important today is not who won the vice presidency, but whether the 2019 elections were marred by massive fraud again.