FORMER Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has asked the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to give him more time to comply with its directive to submit a memorandum in connection with his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.
In a motion filed before the PET, Marcos through counsel George Garcia said the submission of the memorandum should be extended until he or his representatives are able to photocopy the reports on the revision and appreciation of ballots in the three pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.
The PET earlier issued a resolution ordering Marcos and Robredo to submit a memorandum within 20 working days, starting from receipt of a copy of the resolution containing their comments on the revision and appreciation of the ballots from the said three provinces, as well as their position on Marcos’s third cause of action in his election protest.
In his third cause of action, Marcos is asking the PET to disregard he results of the 2016 election in the three ARMM provinces of Lanao del Norte, Basilan and Maguindanao on the ground of terrorism, intimidation and harassment of voters, as well as pre-shading of ballots.
“Considering that the relevant reports on the revision and appreciation of votes relating to the three pilot protested provinces consist of voluminous documents, protestant Marcos is constrained to request this Honorable Tribunal to allow him to photocopy the said reports to comply with the directive of this Honorable Tribunal to file his comment thereon,” Marcos said.
“Considering that the photocopying of the reports has yet to commence, protestant Marcos is likewise constrained to move for the deferment of the deadline to submit his comments on the said reports on the revision and appreciation of votes until the requested photocopying of the document reports is granted and completed,” he added.
Included in his motion are names of his 15 representatives for photocopying of the said documents.
He also asked the PET to allow him to deduct from his cash deposit all the administrative expenses that will be incurred relative to his request to photocopy the relevant report on the revision and appreciation of votes.
Marcos filed an election protest on June 29, 2016, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in May, also that year. The Commission on Elections declared Robredo the winner in the vice presidential race in the 2016 election, after she got 14,418,817 votes, which is 263,473 votes more than the 14,155,344 received by Marcos.