Marcos completes payment of P66.2-M electoral protest fee

MANILA, Philippines – Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr on Tuesday, July 11, completed the payment of the P66.2-million fee for his electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

Marcos paid the balance of the fee before the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET),  began the preliminary hearing on his electoral protest and Robredo’s counter-protest in connection with the 2016 vice presidential polls.

The PET had earlier ordered Marcos to complete the payment of his P66.2-million electoral protest fee before July 14.  He paid a P200,000-deposit upon filing the protest, and an initial P36,023,000 April 17.

He paid the remaining balance on Tuesday.

The PET had billed Marcos P66,223,000 for his protest fee, or P500 for each of the 132,446 precincts covered by his case.

Robredo won the vice presidency with 14,418,817 votes against Marcos’ 14,155,344 – a difference of just 263,473 votes.

During the preliminary conference, the parties would set the issues to be addressed and resolved by the tribunal.

The PET had earlier designated a panel of commissioners to assist in receiving the evidence, chaired by retired Justice Jose Vitug, with Angelito Imperio and Irene Ragodon-Guevarra as members.

Marcos filed the protest against Robredo on June 29, 2016, contesting 39,221 clustered precincts which are composed of 132,446 established precincts. Robredo, meanwhile, filed a counter-protest, questioning 8,042 clustered precincts which are composed of 31,278 established precincts. (TIMELINE: Marcos-Robredo election case) – Rappler.com