MANILA – Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo has claimed victory in the 2016 national elections over former Sen. Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos following the outcome of poll recount in three places.
According to Robredo’s camp, the recount of ballots from Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental, and Iloilo even yielded an increase by 15,000 votes.
“Without pre-empting the resolution of the Honorable Tribunal, the result of the revision, recount and re-appreciation of the ballots clearly confirm the victory of protestee Robredo,” Robredo’s lawyers said.
Meanwhile, Marcos’ camp called the claim “self-serving” in the absence of official figures from the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
Lawyer Romulo Macalintal said his client’s lead increased by 15,000 votes due to the unaccounted votes by the vote counting machine, which were recognized in the revision and recount process.
“Kasi may mga pagkakataon nga na ang botante mismo ay mali ang pakaka-shade ng balota, o iyong 25-percent threshold ay hindi nakuha kaya hindi iyon binibilang ng vote-counting machines,” Macalintal said.
Marcos lost the vice presidential race to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the final and official tally by the Commission on Elections. He garnered 14,155,344 votes while Robredo got a total of 14,418,817.
The former senator questioned the election results in 39, 221 clustered precincts in some 25 provinces and five cities all over the country involving around nine million votes.
Marcos cited alleged pre-shading of ballots, massive vote-buying, script change in the transparency server that supposedly altered the results, pre-loaded secure digital cards, misreading of ballots, malfunctioning vote counting machines, and an “abnormally high” unaccounted votes/under-votes for the vice presidential position. /PN
