Manila: Philippine Chief Justice Renato Corona has asked Vice President Jejomar Binay to respond within 10 days to the electoral protest filed by Senator Mar Roxas.
"The Chief Justice found Senator Roxas' electoral protest sufficient in form and substance," said Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez, adding, "(As a result) the Chief Justice has ordered the secretary of the tribunal to send summons to the respondent to file a comment within 10 days."
Last Friday, the lawyers of Roxas filed a 102-page electoral protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), which is composed of Supreme Court justices.
Roxas paid P100,000 (Dh8,333) in docket fees and a P200,000 (Dh16,666) advance payment for the filing of his electoral protest. The amount might reach about P7 million (Dh583,333), said Marquez.
In his protest, Roxas called for the manual counting of some three million votes that were nullified during the national canvassing of the May 10 votes, by a joint Congressional group.
The automated machines that were used on May 10 cannot read ballots that were not properly logged by voters.
Now Roxas also asked for a thorough review of the automated election process because there were glitches before, during and after the May 10 national polls.
Roxas is the Vice Presidential candidate of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino. Vice President Binay won by 700,000 votes over Roxas.
