The manual recount and revision of votes in the contested 2016 vice presidential election was suspended starting at 2 p.m. today when all the 16 air-conditioning units bogged down.
Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) revisors said the air-conditioning trouble was traced to the circuit breaker which could not be immediately repaired prompting the suspension of work at the fifth floor of the Supreme Court-Court of Appeals gymnasium where the manual recount and revision of ballots are being conducted behind closed doors.
It was not known immediately if the manual recount and revision of ballots in the protest filed by then Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo would resume this morning.
Being manually recounted and revised are ballots from the towns of Ocampo, Pili, Magarao, Presentacion, Lagonoy, Camaligan and Garchitorena in Camarines Sur.
After three weeks, the PET revisors have finished their work in the Camarines Sur towns of Baao, Bato, Bula, Balatan, Sagnay and Buhi.
This developed as revisors, who requested anonymity because of the confidentiality of their work with the PET which is composed of all SC justices, said they discovered partially burned ballots, wet ballots, and missing election returns, voters receipts and minutes of voting.
They said ballots which have burns on their edges probably from lighted cigarettes and holes in the middle portion were discovered from a box retrieved from Ocampo town.
The burned ballots were shaded in favor of Robredo, they alleged.
They said some of them moved for the investigation of the personnel of the city treasurer’s office in Ocampo town on the issue of burned ballots.
Earlier, the revisors said they had found that 53 of the 55 clustered precincts in Bula town and 20 out of 30 clustered precincts in Balatan town had no voters’ receipts.
Marcos’ protest against Robredo was filed in June 2016. Robredo filed her counter protest in August 2016. The two cases were consolidated by the PET. After several postponements, the manual recount and revision of ballots in the three pilot provinces named by Marcos – Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental – started on April 2.
Marcos protested the results in 132,446 precincts in 27 provinces and cities.
The result of the manual recount and revision of ballots in the three pilot provinces would determine if the PET would proceed with the work in the other areas subject of the protest.
Source: MB
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