MANILA, Aug. 2 (PNA) — An election lawyer urged Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Mar Roxas to withdraw his election protest against the victory of Vice President Jejomar Binay in the 2010 polls.
Atty. Romeo Macalintal noted that withdrawing the protest will not only benefit Roxas, who was recently anointed by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III as the standard bearer of the Liberal Party (LP) for the 2016 polls, but also the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the people.
“Time has run out for Roxas to pursue this case and the Supreme Court, acting as a Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), lacks the much-needed time to resolve the case considering that not a single ballot box from the precincts protested has been delivered to the PET for the revision or recount of the ballots,” he said.
Macalintal added that it would not be practical for the government official to spend close to P100 million pesos to pursue the case as the term of office of the contested position will end soon as the next election is near.
He noted that withdrawing the protest will enable the government to save P90 million a year for the budget of the PET.
“This means that, since 2010 and up to the present, a total of about P450M has been spent by the people for the allowances and other expenses of the PET for Roxas’ protest, which practically never moved since its filing in July 2010,” Macalintal added.
The lawyer said that Roxas’ withdrawal will allow the Comelec to free up the election paraphernalia needed in the 2016 polls.
“With the withdrawal of his election protest, some election paraphernalia which are being used to protect the ballots under protest, such as some ballot boxes and voting records, could still be used in the forthcoming 2016 elections,” said Macalintal.
In July 2010, Roxas filed an election protest before the PET the victory of Binay involving a total of 76,000 out of the more than 80,000 ballot boxes nationwide.
Binay is also running for the highest position in the land. (PNA)