MANILA — Malacañang on Wednesday said it respects the decision of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) favoring Vice President Leni Robredo’s plea to use the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ballot shading threshold of 25 percent in the recount of 2016 poll votes.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque gave no further comment, noting that President Rodrigo Duterte is not party to the electoral protest.
“The President is not a party to the election protest and that’s the decision of the PET, so be it,” Roque said in a television interview.
“Of course, we will implement the decision of the PET and that is why we let the PET do its job,” he added.
In a resolution dated Sept. 18, the Supreme Court, sitting as the poll tribunal, said it will no longer use the 50-percent threshold as far as the shading of votes in lieu of the 25-percent threshold used in the 2016 polls.
“From the foregoing, for purposes of the 2016 elections, the fifty percent (50%) shading threshold was no longer applied. It is likewise clear however that a new threshold had been applied,” the resolution read.
Former senator and losing Vice Presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. earlier pushed for a 50-percent shading threshold after he claimed that the Comelec did not declare the change in shading threshold rules.
On June 29, 2016, Marcos filed an electoral protest, claiming that Robredo’s camp cheated in the automated polls in May 2016. (Azer Parrocha/PNA)
