In a resolution, the PET also granted Legarda’s motion to withdraw aspects of her protest covering the municipalities of Lanao del Norte and Surigao del Sur. The election returns from 10 municipalities of Lanao del Sur remained under protest.
Legarda had protested the proclamation of De Castro as vice president- elect in the May 10, 2004 vice presidential elections in a petition filed with the PET in July 2004. She alleged massive fraud in the accomplishment of the certificates of canvass and election returns.
The PET set the start of the process of retabulation and revision of ballots for Dec. 12. The process shall continue daily, except on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and other nonworking holidays, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon, and from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The tribunal transferred "for security reasons" the venue for the recount of the ballots, as well as the storage of the ballot boxes concerned, to the PET office on the fifth floor of the Supreme Court- Court of Appeals Multi- Purpose building in the Court of Appeals compound in Manila. These include the ballot boxes retrieved from the House of Representatives building in Quezon City which had been stored in the old Supreme Court building.
The PET also reiterated its order to the Commission on Elections, dated March 31, 2005, to submit to it a certified true copy of the official project of precincts used in the May 2004 national elections. The Comelec was directed to submit the document within a non-extendable period of five days after receipt of notice. Opposition quarters have criticized the failure of Comelec to submit this document.
In its resolution, the PET required the protestant, Legarda, and protestee, De Castro, to also submit the names of their revisors and alternate revisors not later than Dec. 5, 2005.
The tribunal required Loren to make a cash deposit of P3,882,000 for the revision of ballots from 7,764 polling precincts in the six congressional districts of Cebu. It noted that Loren had made only a partial deposit for the entire electoral protest, whereas it would need P500 cash deposit per precinct to conduct the recount, which may only be sufficient to cover the salaries of the revisors. Loren had earlier deposited more than P4 million for her protest.
Legarda filed her electoral protest with PET on July 23, 2004, together with her Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino running mate for president, Fernando Poe Jr., who protested the proclamation of President Arroyo. However, Poe died soon after, resulting in the dismissal of his case.
In her protest, Loren said that in the May 10, 2004 elections, protestee (De Castro) and his followers "perpetrated and committed massive and widespread electoral fraud, anomalies and irregularities, in patent and flagrant violation of existing election laws, and applicable rules and regulations, so as to illicitly ensure his ‘victory’ … most prominent of which was the surreptitious employment of the dreaded practice well known as the electoral scheme of ‘dagdag-bawas’ which scheme resulted in the wholesale increase of the votes unlawfully credited to the protestee (De Castro) and the corresponding illicit wholesale decrease in the number of votes legitimately cast in favor of, and garnered by, the protestant (Legarda)."
Earlier, lawyers of Loren said that the recount of votes from Cebu would reveal massive fraud which resulted in the proclamation of Arroyo and De Castro as presidentelect and vice presidentelect by Congress.
De Castro welcomes speedy resolution of electoral protest
"The Vice President is pleased that the Presidential Electoral Tribunal has finally set the start of the retabulation and revision process on December 12," said lawyer Armando Marcelo of the Andres Marcelo Padernal Guerrero & Paras (AMPGP) Law Offices, counsel for the vice president.
Marcelo said, "The Vice President has always maintained that the opening of the ballots will remove all doubts that he won the election fairly."
Whether or not the retabulation and revision will push through on Dec. 12 is another matter, according to De Castro’s lawyers.
As pointed out by Marcelo, the resolution of the PET also directed Legarda to pay an additional cash deposit of P3,882,000.
"The ball is now in Legarda’s hands," said Marcelo. "We hope that she will immediately pay the cash deposit so that there will be no reason for any further delay because of her alleged financial difficulties."
