Vice President Leni Robredo’s lawyer said Tuesday that he sees a “collusion” between former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. and Solicitor General Jose Calida in election protest Marcos filed before the Supreme Court.
According to lawyer Emil Marañon, Robredo’s legal team plans to question the “very abnormal” and “very suspicious” involvement of Calida in what he said was supposed to be a private case between Marcos and Robredo.
Yesterday, Marcos asked Associate Justice Marvic Leonen to inhibit the four-year-old protest proceedings, accusing the justice has delayed the case and shown bias against the Marcos family.
Hours later, the Solicitor General (OSG) Office filed its own motion, raising similar concerns.
Marañon CNN, Philippines, that it was “physically impossible” for the OSG to have prepared its own motion to inhibit and filed it on the same day that Bongbong Marcos did.
Robredo’s lawyer suspects collusion between Marcos, Calida in poll protest
“But ‘yung punto natin po [is] the apparent collusion, as submitted by Mr. Marcos earlier on, is very apparent po sa action ng Solicitor General. He’s coming in as the Tribune of the People supposedly, but ang tanong namin po, bakit doon po siya kumakampi sa natalo, ‘yung ni-reject ng taumbayan?” the lawyer said.
“Bakit hindi po doon sa nanalo kung totoong Tribune of the People po siya? Ang tanong namin po, baka tribune of Mr. Marcos po si Solicitor General Calida po,” he added.
Marañon said Marcos and Calida discussed similar arguments and even submitted “similarly worded” sentences.
On the other hand, Marcos denied discussing his election protest with Calida, who campaigned for him during the 2016 polls.
“We have not been in any kind of communication with the SolGen’s office. I’m sure that the SolGen is perfectly capable of acquiring a copy, so I’m sure he was able to read our motion before he filed his own motion. Again, you will have to ask the SolGen how that came about,” Marcos told CNN Philippines.
Marañon also claimed that the OSG had “abandoned” its client, the Commission on Elections, to “favor” Marcos over the shading threshold issue in the protest in 2018.