The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo expressed disappointment with the decision of the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to dismiss its petition to immediately resolve the electoral protest former Senator Bongbong Marcos filed against Robredo.

“We are extremely disappointed, but we fully respect the Presidential Electoral Tribunal’s decision to deny our motion for immediate resolution in connection with the election protest of losing candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,” Attorney Beng Sardillo, Robredo’s legal counsel, said in a statement on Thursday (July 18, 2019).

“We anchored our motion on the fact that Marcos’ camp hasn’t proven anything in its electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo. In fact, VP Leni has gained additional votes from the recount,” she said.

Sardillo explained that the reason why they filed such motion is to stop the camp of Marcos from taking advantage of the proceedings by “spreading misinformation and propaganda” to condition the mind of the public that he lost in the vice presidential race because of election cheating.

“We pushed for the immediate resolution of the case so as to prevent Marcos’ camp from spreading misinformation and propaganda to deceive the public about the genuine results of the 2016 elections, which they have been doing from the beginning of this process,” the lawyer said.

But Robredo’s counsel reiterated that Marcos could not claim victory just yet with the PET denying the motion as the proceedings are still ongoing.

“Marcos cannot claim victory as the PET only put its decision on hold to validate and confirm the results of the recount from the three pilot provinces,” she said.

“In the end, we are confident that Vice President Robredo will be vindicated and her victory confirmed,” Sardillo added.