The Philippine Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) started manually recounting ballots from the 2016 elections earlier today, following a protest filed by former senator and then vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.
Bongbong, who is the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., lost against the Liberal Party’s (LP) bet Leni Robredo by about 200,000 votes. About a month after the elections and a day before Robredo’s inauguration, Bongbong had already filed an electoral protest before the PET.
His petition criticized the quality of the automated election system and alleged that “traditional election abuses” were committed by the Noynoy Aquino administration. Aquino is also part of the LP and is the son of Marcos critic and late former senator Ninoy Aquino, and the late President Cory Aquino.
The PET’s manual recount was first set for February but it was rescheduled to March 19. It was rescheduled again for today, a day after the Holy Week break. The recount started with 5,418 precincts found in provinces thought to be Robredo strongholds — Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental, and Iloilo.
Robredo and her camp heard mass at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila this morning, where she said that she remains confident that the recount’s results will support their stand.
“To all our supporters and our friends who are here today. Our lawyers want us to know that we should have no fear because we are in a fight for the truth,” she said in English and Filipino.
Bongbong also stands by his allegation and even told reporters today that ballots from Robredo’s province, Camarines Sur were allegedly tampered with, making them illegible.
“If they were wet during election day, they would have been dry by now — they could not be damp for two years. Someone drenched them,” he said in English and Filipino.
Bongbong also said that some audit logs, which contain information on what time the votes were transmitted, are missing from 38 precincts in the same province.
“Clearly, somebody opened the ballot box, took the audit log and re-sealed it,” he said.
Bongbong ran for vice president in 2016 as the running mate of the late Miriam Defensor Santiago. However, he was also endorsed by now President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Marcos family has remained influential in Philippine politics even after hundreds of cases were filed against them over ill-gotten wealth amounting to billions of dollars, and more cases over human rights abuses committed during his father’s regime. Bongbong’s mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, is currently a congressperson representing Ilocos Norte.
Bongbong announced in January that he will not seek a senate seat in the upcoming 2019 midterm elections because he plans to see his protest through. His sister, current Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos said in February that she might be “forced” to run for national office if Bongbong’s protest does not go their way.
