MANILA — Malacañang on Monday welcomed the start of the vote recount for vice president, hoping it will settle the “long festering” dispute on Vice President Leni Robredo’s victory.
“Well the Palace welcomes the recount so that it will settle that long festering dispute,” Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a Palace media briefing.
Gueverra, however, clarified that the recount was a judicial matter that should be decided by the Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
“So we leave it to the co-equal branch to handle that,” he said.
The PET started on Monday the recount of votes for the electoral protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Robredo.
Robredo won the May 2016 vice presidential race by 263,473 votes only over Marcos.
The manual recounting of votes will first cover 5,418 precincts from Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Iloilo provinces, known as Robredo’s bailiwicks.
Robredo ran under the former ruling political party, Liberal Party (LP), while Marcos, son of former President Ferdinand Marcos, ran as an independent candidate.
Marcos had claimed that Robredo cheated in the automated polls, prompting him to file an electoral protest on June 29, 2016.
He contested the results from 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clusters, covering 27 provinces and cities.
Robredo had filed her counter-protest, questioning Marcos’ victory in over 30,000 precincts. (PNA)
