MANILA — Supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to maintain its decision regarding the 25-percent shading threshold it has set for the 2016 elections.
The move is in connection with the ruling of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to use the 50-percent threshold in the protest filed by former senator Bongbong Marcos.
Former Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Etta Rosales and Sister Mary John Mananzan, together with other Robredo supporters, went to the respective offices of poll body officials to deliver the letter.
“We ask the honorable Comelec commissioners to stand by the 25-percent threshold that was used in the 2016 national and local elections as you have set,” the letter read.
“Comelec should not waver. It should not abandon its position,” it added.
The offices of acting Chairman Al Parreno, Commissioners Luie Guia, Rowena Guanzon, Sheriff Abas, and Socorro Inting have received the letter.
Rosales and Mananzan noted that allowing the PET to use the 50-percent threshold would put at risk the votes in the 2016 vice presidential race.
“With an outdated threshold in use, we fear that thousands of voters will be disenfranchised and the real choice of the people will not be heard,” they said.
Earlier, the PET had denied the Vice President’s motion to consider ballot ovals shaded by a minimum of 25 percent as valid votes in the ongoing electoral protest.
In its decision, the tribunal noted the absence of a poll body document that lowered the threshold to 25 percent in the 2016 elections from the 50-percent threshold set in the 2010 polls. (PNA)
