Bongbong Marcos Addresses Caguioa’s Bias Supreme Court Rulings while the Senate Grills Comelec

The Filipino people are asking for clear and satisfactory answers from the Comelec after Atty. Glenn Chong’s revelations recently. IT expert Edmund Casino calls them illiterate officials who pretend that they know how the automated election system of Smartmatic works. On the other hand, Bongbong Marcos finally decides on formally filing a motion to inhibit Supreme Court Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa from his electoral protest. His bias rulings are evident from the start with the delay of the preliminary conference. Not to mention the outrageous fees collected from him despite the non-payment of Robredo for her counter-protest.

Close Ties with ex-Pnoy Jeopardizes the Supreme Court

The Marcos camp sought for ‘immediate inhibition’ of Justice Caguioa from participating in all proceedings related to the 2016 vice presidential election protest case. The former senator cited Caguioa’s ‘close ties’ with his friend and former boss Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III as a basis of inhibition, saying the Justice ‘can’t deny that he is biased with the Liberal Party among others.’

Actual Relations with the Opposition

It is a public knowledge that Caguioa is a childhood friend and former classmate of Aquino aside from being his appointee. Caguioa’s wife ‘is an ardent supporter’ of Robredo. The former senator’s camp also elaborates on a series of online messages from Caguioa’s wife which prompted him to push through with the motion. The messages allegedly ‘depict the wife’s resentment’ towards Marcos and his family, according to Marcos’ statement.

The 25% Shading Ruling Favors Robredo

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In July, the Supreme Court that acts as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), sided with Robredo’s appeal. It pushes for the 25 percent shading threshold in the recount of votes of the vice presidential race. It dishonors its own guideline. This is despite the enormous debate on the subject. The Solicitor General even sent a letter to the latter that explains a legal opinion on the matter. It is highly questionable that only Robredo has a problem on the 50% supposed standard PET guideline.

Filipinos Demand Answers

A farmer went viral on social media when he vehemently questions Comelec’s Jimenez who cannot give him a concrete answer after the Senate hearing on electoral reforms. He asks why we are better than America’s capability of transmitting the results 10 minutes after the election. Now, the Philippines holds the title of sending result transmissions a day prior to the election. Jimenez promises the crowd to check on this issue at the soonest possible time and not one year as they normally do.

Outrageous Treatment

Bongbong Marcos completes payment of Php 66 million protest fee on top of ridiculous miscellaneous fees that he solely shoulders. An example is the payment of more than Php 7 million for the ballot decryption that Marcos did not get a copy of. They gave Robredo the soft copies first. She also got away with not paying half of her Php 15.4 million due. Besides, the Preliminary Conference was already delayed for more than 7 months. Caguioa also made two resolutions on his 25% shading ruling that confuses the magistrates thereby getting the en banc decision. As the 2016 election anomalies become clearer, the major mainstream media that favors the opposition mellowed down their coverage on these issues. However, the people are already demanding to proclaim Marcos as the legitimate Vice President via social media.