THE Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) ordered the camps of former senator Ferdinand Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo to pay a fine of P50,000 each for violating the gag order it issued in February in connection with the ongoing recount of votes for the 2016 vice presidential race.
The PET, in a resolution issued on April 10, 2018 ordered Marcos and Robredo to show cause and explain why they should not be cited in contempt for violating the resolutions dated February 13, 2018 and March 20, 2018, issued by the tribunal.
The PET in its February 13 resolution ordered the parties to strictly observe the subjudice rule pending the proceedings of the instant case and this was reiterated in the Tribunal’s Resolution dated March 20, 2018.
The PET however, noted that despite the directives, several news reports have shown that the parties, their counsels and/or representatives, have continued to disclose sensitive information regarding the revision process to the public, in clear violation of the aforementioned resolutions.
A subjudice rule means that parties to a case are prohibited from discussing to the public the merits of their case while it is pending in court.
Marcos sought the recount of votes for VP post, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in May that year.
In his protest, Marcos contested the results from 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clusters, covering 27 provinces and cities.
Robredo won the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls with 14,418,817 votes – a margin of 263,473 over Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes.