PET finds Roxas' poll protest sufficient in form, substance

(Updated 9:59 p.m.) The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), with Chief Justice Renato Corona at its helm, has found defeated vice presidential bet Manuel "Mar" Roxas II's electoral protest sufficient in form and substance, Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said on Monday. As a result, respondent Vice President Jejomar Binay has been given 10 days upon receipt of the tribunal's notice to answer Roxas' protest. "The chief justice found the petition of Senator Mar Roxas sufficient in form and substance that is why he has ordered the secretary of the tribunal to send summons to the respondent [Binay] to file a comment within ten days from receipt of notice," Marquez said at a media briefing. Seeking to nullify the former Makati City mayor's victory, Roxas, through his lawyers, filed his 102-page electoral protest last Friday with PET, which is composed of Supreme Court justices. The PET resolves only election contests relating to the two highest government position in the land, the president and vice president. A petition seeking the abolition of the tribunal, filed by election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, remains pending.
3 million votes In his election protest, Roxas, a senator whose term has just ended, sought a full accounting and count of, among others, the three million null votes and other votes that were not counted during the national canvassing after the May 10 automated elections. "The votes in contests are therefore crucially determinative of the people's true vice president. As it is, the proclamation of the protestee was based on figures plagued by mysteries that wrapped and anomalies that engulfed the unverified dictates of the PCOS machine," Roxas' protest stated. Roxas also asked for a thorough review of the automated elections system especially in the light of numerous technical glitches encountered before, during, and after the elections. Fraud, anomalies "The vice presidential contest was marred by various manifestations of fraud, anomalies, irregularities and statistical improbabilities. It is anomalous that for the Vice President alone, approximately three million votes were disenfranchised to be null/misread votes. Incidence of null/misread votes was interestingly high in provinces where protestant won while curiously low in provinces where protestee (Binay) allegedly win," part of the protest read. Roxas noted that in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), 578 election machines reported an average voter turnout of 97.85-percent; in Kalinga, 33 machines reported a province-wide turnout of 98.47-percent; and in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), 44 machines had a region-wide turnout of 98.54-percent. He said there were 1,147 clustered precincts where he received 10 votes or less, 688 (or 60 percent) of which are from the ARMM. In the 688 ARMM clustered precincts, 328 were from Lanao del Sur, 251 from Maguindanao. There were likewise 305 clustered precincts were he received less than 1 percent votes of the total precinct turnout, and 204 clustered precincts where he received one or zero vote. Roxas paid P100,000 in docket fees and a P200,000 advance payment, Marquez said, adding that the amount might reach about P7 million should the case drag on. - RJAB Jr/KBK, GMANews.TV