The Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has ordered local and election officials of Camarines Sur towns to explain reported irregularities on documents regarding the ongoing vice presidential poll recount.

Irregularities and discrepancies were reported by the teams of official vote revisors, called revision committees, in two of Marcos’ three protest’s pilot provinces namely, Camarines Sur and Iloilo.

Marcos’ third pilot province is Negros Oriental.

In a resolution dated June 19, 2018, the PET ordered the municipal treasurer and the chairmen of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) of Tinambac town, Tigaon town and Iriga City to submit an explanation on these incident reports made by the revisors:

(1) Incident Report dated May 25, 2018 re: Clustered Precinct No. 36, Brgy. Lupi, Tinambac, Camarines: ‘4 black zip ties used to seal ballot box instead of Comelec red plastic seals; plastic seals found inside ballot box, cannot be found; election return envelope not inside ballot box, cannot be found; envelopes for MOV (minutes of voting) and torn ballots appear to have been previously opened; and Voter’s Receipt box is missing; Voter’s Receipts found scattered inside ballot box.”

The PET directed the revision committee in charge to continue with the recount of paper ballots in said precinct and ordered the Municipal Treasurer of Tinambac, Camarines Sur to explain the observations in the subject Incident Report within 10 days from notice.

(2) Incident Report dated May 30, 2018 re: Clustered Precinct No. 7, Brgy. San Francisco, Iriga City, Camarines Sur: ‘there is no explanation in the MOVs with the regard to the usage of two MOV forms. The entries in the two MOVs have substantial discrepancies. It cannot be determined with certainty which of the two was actually used or both were used. As for the different signatures of the BEI Chairman in the official ballots, MOVs and envelopes, it cannot be ascertained if signatures were made by the BEI Chairman or signed by different persons.

The revisors were ordered to continue with the recount of paper ballots and reflect the entries of both MOVs in the Revision Report, while the chairperson of the BEIs was ordered to explain within ten days from notice why there are two MOVs inside the ballot box.

In an earlier resolution, dated April 24, 2018, the PET ordered the municipal treasurers in the towns of Bato, Sagñay, Garchitorena and Ocampo to explain within 10 days from receipt of notice why the ballots in their respective areas were wet or damaged.

The PET noted the revisors’ incident report that stated several ballot boxes were re-reopened after they were sealed. One of these was found re-sealed without the broken security seal.

Also on July 3, 2018, the tribunal noted several incident reports for the recount of votes for the province of Iloilo.

Marcos’ protest covers 39,221 clustered precincts (132,446 precincts) -- 36,465 of which he wants to undergo manual recount and judicial revision, while the remaining 2,756 he wants election results nullified.

Marcos lost to Robredo by only 263,473 votes, making the 2016 vice-presidential derby the tightest in recent Philippine history. - report from Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News