Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 2) — The vote recount for the 2016 vice presidential election began Monday.

Vice President Leni Robredo attended Mass on Monday ahead of the ballot recount by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

"The recount starts today. Yesterday was Easter, and the biggest lesson is, 'There is always hope in the midst of darkness,'" she said, speaking at St. Scholastica's College in Manila.

She is confident despite what she calls a difficult opponent and trying times.

"Sa dulo ng lahat, parating katotohanan ang mananaig... Wala tayong dapat ikatakot dahil katotohanan ang ating ipinaglalaban. This is the time of fear, pero manalig tayo," she said.

[Translation: In the end, truth will prevail. We shall not fear because we are fighting for the truth. This is the time of fear, but we shall keep our faith.]

The Marcos camp said they are also ready for the recount.

"We are very optimistic because we have waited for two years," Marcos' legal counsel Vic Rodriguez said.

Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te on Monday said the manual poll recount will "ascertain the number of votes received by both parties."

The recount begins two years after Marcos brought his electoral protest to the Supreme Court, sitting as the PET. He lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes.

The recount will happen at a gymnasium in the Supreme Court compound in Manila. This is the first time the PET will be doing a recount. The process is off-limits to media.

Rodriguez said Monday morning, the physical condition of ballot boxes and its locks will be checked. The manual recount will begin in the afternoon.

Te said the poll recount will be held Monday to Friday. The morning session will be from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m, the afternoon session from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Te said the recount will follow a "strict time limit."

Since the implementation of the automated elections in 2010, Robredo's legal counsel Romulo Macalintal said electoral protests had been dismissed because the results of the manual ballot count tallied exactly with that of the vote-counting machines (VCMs) and the consolidated canvassing system.

"Sa kasaysayan ng ating automated election system, wala pang nananalong protesta sa halalan mula pa noong 2010," Macalintal said.

[Translation: In the history of the automated election system since 2010, there has not been a successful election protest.]

Marcos' camp, meanwhile, took a swipe at Robredo for her alleged moves to delay the poll count.

"We have endured two years of waiting due to Robredo's habitual and intentional moves to delay the election protest and deliberate attempts to bury the truth," Marcos' spokesperson Vic Rodriguez said in a statement Sunday.

He also said the recount will once and for all dispel "all the uncertainty that beclouds the true choice of the electorate and prove that Mrs. Robredo cheated her way to the Vice Presidency."

In its grant of Marcos' plea, the PET decided upon Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental as the pilot provinces for the ballot recount.

Marcos identified the three provinces as "best exemplifying fraud or irregularities" in his protest brief.

Robredo also listed three provinces in her own counter-protest brief: Capiz, Sulu, and North Cotabato.

The recount in the three pilot provinces identified by Marcos will take up to six months.

Robredo said the protest of Marcos is based on general allegations and manufactured evidence designed to sway results in his favor.

Marcos had also questioned the appearance of "mysterious squares" on ballot images beside Robredo's name, saying it was a proof of fraud.

However, Robredo's camp had explained the squares are the vote-counting machines' way of recognizing a shade on the circle next to the candidate.

The PET has earlier required Marcos to pay P66 million and Robredo P15 million in two tranches to fund their protests and counter-protests. A petitioner needs to pay P500 per contested precinct.

Tedious process

The PET adhoc committee said it can set up only 40 committees on Monday. But they are hoping to open 10 more.

Each committee is composed of a head revisor — a PET employee — and one representative for each of the two candidates.

Head revisors are carefully picked as the revision committees face a huge task which would be performed within a given time frame.

They must process the results of over 5,000 clustered precincts from three pilot provinces chosen by Marcos.

In places where there are less than 300 ballots, they must finish the recount in five and a half hours. For 300 to 699 ballots, they only have a little more than eight hours. And for more than 700 ballots, they are given 11 hours.

Should there be objections or claims by either of the parties, the PET would have the last say.

The tribunal would only issue announcements should the need arise.

CNN Philippines digital producer Ver Marcelo contributed to this report.</s>Lawyers of Vice President Leni Robredo and ex-senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr say the ballot recount will determine who truly won the vice presidency

MANILA, Philippines – Both the camps of Vice President Leni Robredo and her rival, former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, are oozing with confidence as the ballot recount for the vice presidency is set to begin on Monday, April 2.

Why they are confident: Lawyers of Robredo and Marcos both believe the results of the recount will prove their respective clients won in the 2016 elections. (READ: TIMELINE: Marcos-Robredo election case)

Marcos' legal counsel and spokesperson Vic Rodriguez said their camp has long waited for the recount to begin. He also criticized the Vice President's camp for allegedly delaying the protest and attempting to "bury the truth." (READ: 'Why run for senator when I already won as VP?' – Bongbong Marcos)

"We have endured two years of waiting due to Robredo's habitual and intentional moves to delay the election protest and deliberate attempts to bury the truth," Rodriguez said in a text message on Sunday, April 1.

"Finally, we have reached the day when manual recount [will] finally commence and very much look forward to its final conclusion [to] determine the bona fide winner and dispel once and for all the uncertainty that beclouds the truth choice of the electorate for Vice President," he added.

Robredo's lawyer Romulo Macalintal, meanwhile, said they are "happy" over the start of the ballot recount, as they are "confident" Robredo truly won the elections. (READ: Robredo wants VP protest resolved so Marcos 'won't have space to lie')

"[We are] very, very confident, and we're happy that the revision and the recount will start… because of the fact that we will be able to prove to the entire Filipino people that our client, the Vice President, won in a legitimate election," Macalintal told Rappler.

The veteran election lawyer said the ballot recount process will show "there is nothing irregular" in Robredo's victory.

How the ballot recount works: Despite both camps' confidence, do not expect the ballot recount to be finished any time soon.

The Supreme Court (SC), acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), will review a total of 5,418 ballot boxes from Camarines Sur, Iloilo, and Negros Oriental – the 3 pilot provinces that Marcos chose for the initial ballot recount.

The ballot recount process will be held at the 5th floor gymnasium of the SC-Court of Appeals building in Padre Faura in Manila. (READ: LOOK: Where PET will recount vice presidential votes)

As of now, the PET only has around 1,400 ballot boxes from Camarines Sur. The ballot boxes from the other two provinces will still be retrieved in the coming weeks or months, depending on the PET's schedule.

A total of 50 revision committees will pore over every ballot box starting Monday. Each revision committee will include two revisors from the Marcos camp, another two from the Robredo camp, and an independent head revisor hired by the PET.

The PET requires them to finish a box of less than 300 ballots in 5.5 hours, a box of 300 to 699 ballots in 8.35 hours, and a box of more than 700 ballots in 11 hours.

The revision committees will work Monday to Friday, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, with breaks in between for a total of 6.5 hours a day.

The PET will then determine the merit of the rest of Marcos' protest based on the results from the 3 pilot provinces.

When the ballot recount will be over: Macalintal explained that the review of the Camarines Sur ballot boxes alone will take about two months.

"Sa Camarines Sur alone, siguro mga 6 to 8 weeks. So you are talking about two months bago matapos 'yan, ano? Kasi in our experience, 'yung isang ballot box, halos an average of one ballot box a day," said the lawyer.

Granting the PET will be able to have the ballot boxes from Iloilo and Negros Oriental retrieved soon, the whole ballot recount process will take at least 6 months.

But this is just a rough estimate. The PET has yet to schedule the ballot retrieval and recount for the other two provinces. – Rappler.com</s>The recount comes two years after Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, contested the outcome after losing to Leni Robredo by more than 260,000 votes.

Robredo reassured her supporters that they have nothing to be afraid of as the recount begins.

"This is perhaps my message to our supporters and our friends who are here today, the same message our lawyers want to convey: We have nothing to fear. Have no fear for we are fighting for the truth," Robredo said in a six-minute speech.

Supports of Marcos are also gearing up for the recount.

"We are very optimistic because we have waited for two years," Marcos' legal counsel Vic Rodriguez said. "We have endured two years of waiting due to Robredo's habitual and intentional moves to delay the election protest and deliberate attempts to bury the truth."

Marcos is hoping to recount ballots from 36,465 clustered precincts and also nullify votes in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao. Meanwhile, Robredo has filed a counter-protest, which seeks to recount ballots from 30,000 polling precincts in various provinces where Marcos won.

The recount will take place at a gymnasium in the Supreme Court compound in Manila and will be closed to the media.

Over 200 personnel are expected to come in per day during the recount, including 60 employees of the tribunal, psychometricians, lawyers, representatives of both parties and the revisers.

Marcos' family was ousted in the 1986 People's Power Revolution.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s father's government is believed to have killed some 3,000 political opponents, tortured up to 100,000 others and stolen an estimated $10 billion from the country. He died in 1989.</s>The Philippines on Monday began a manual recount of votes in a vice-presidential election after the son and namesake of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos contested the outcome, while the incumbent assured supporters her win was not in doubt.

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, a former senator popularly known as Bongbong, is furious about having lost to Leni Robredo by about 260,000 votes in a May 2016 election he says was marred by massive cheating.

Many political commentators believe Marcos has ambitions to become president one day, and wanted to use the vice presidency as a stepping stone. Opinion polls had shown him the clear leader ahead of the vote, which is separate from that for the presidency.

The recount, ordered by the Supreme Court, began with Marcos questioning the condition of some ballots from the town of Bato in Robredo’s home province of Camarines Sur.

“In four precincts in the town of Bato, all ballots are wet and thus useless,” he told reporters. Alluding to foul play, he added that the ballots seemed to be “only recently wet”.

Audit logs for most of the precincts were missing, he said, and he had seen a ballot box with a hole sealed with a masking tape.

“We have nothing to fear because the truth is what we are fighting for,” Robredo, a one-term congresswoman before the 2016 election, said in a speech after a mass service organised by her supporters in the largely Roman Catholic country.

Robredo, who hails from a decades-old political clique that opposes Duterte and helped oust Marcos in 1986, had lodged a counter protest, questioning results in about 8,000 voting precincts.

Why Marcos the dictator still inspires pride in the Philippines

Although he was not his running mate, Marcos is on good terms with President Rodrigo Duterte, who has made numerous concessions to the Marcos family.

He has constantly praised the leadership of the late dictator, fuelling concern among some Filipinos that he might cling on to power.

Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and held power for 14 years until his removal in a bloodless, military-backed “People Power” uprising.</s>'This is a time of fear, fear of what is going to happen next, pero manalig tayo... ‘Wag paghinaan ng loob,' Vice President Leni Robredo tells her supporters

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo reassured her supporters they have nothing to be afraid of as the ballot recount for the electoral protest filed against her begins on Monday, April 2.

The Vice President delivered a 6-minute speech after attending a multi-sectoral Mass organized by the Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance around two hours before the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), kicked off the ballot recount.

Robredo likened her message for her supporters gathered at St Scholastica’s College Manila’s chapel to the day’s gospel message of hope on Jesus Christ’s resurrection. (READ: Robredo on Easter: Unite amid threats to democracy)

“Kaya siguro to all our supporters and our friends who are here today, ‘yong pinapasabi din ng ating mga lawyers: Wala tayong dapat ikatakot. Wala tayong dapat ikatakot kasi katotohanan ang ating ipinaglalaban,” said the Vice President.

She acknowledged her supporters have many reasons to fear. The electoral protest she is facing was filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. (READ: TIMELINE: Marcos-Robredo election case)

Robredo had also resigned in December 2016 as housing czar of President Rodrigo Duterte, who had barred her to attending Cabinet meetings. Duterte, a known ally of the Marcoses, supported the hero’s burial of the late strongman.

But the Vice President remains hopeful about the results of the ballot recount.

“This is a time of fear, fear of what is going to happen next, pero manalig tayo. Gawin lang ‘yong dati na nating ginagawa. ‘Wag paghinaan ng loob. Maraming limitasyon, pero sa liit ng mundo natin ngayon, kailangan tayo. Kailangan tayo para patuloy na magbigay ng liwanag,” said Robredo.

“Kasi kung tayo mismo ang umayaw, lalong didilim ang paligid, and so many people are looking up to us, for us to fight for them. Kaya patuloy lang tayo,” she added.

Robredo’s speech was heard by sisters from the Order of Saint Benedict, her legal team led by lawyers Romulo Macalintal and Bernadette Sardillo, and her supporters who were clad in white.

Her legal counsels also participated in the Mass, with Macalintal reading the First Reading and Sardillo joining the offertory.

The Vice President's legal team was also blessed by Fr Ted Gonzales, who celebrated the Mass, and other priests present.

Robredo beat Marcos by only 263,473 votes in the 2016 polls, leading the latter to allege cheating and to file the electoral protest against her two years ago.

Marcos is seeking to recount ballots from 36,465 clustered precincts and also nullify votes in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao. His bid to question the integrity of the 2016 elections as a whole was already junked by the PET.

Robredo, meanwhile, also filed her counter-protest, which seeks to recount ballots from 30,000 polling precincts in various provinces where Marcos won. – Rappler.com</s>Ex-senator Bongbong Marcos' lawyer says Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos is not accredited, but she was still 'allowed by the PET to enter' on April 2

It was not surprising for Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos to show up at the Supreme Court (SC) as the ballot recount for the vice presidential electoral protest began on Monday, April 2.

After all, it was her brother, ex-senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, who filed the electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo. (READ: TIMELINE: Marcos-Robredo election case)

But according to Robredo's lawyer Bernadette Sardillo, Imee should not have been able to enter the ballot revision or recount site in the first place.

Sardillo hit back at Imee after the latter granted a media interview on Tuesday, April 3, to defend her brother, whose claims of anomalies regarding ballot boxes were tagged as "fake news" by Robredo's other legal counsel, Romulo Macalintal.

"With all due respect to Ms Marcos, we had to answer the lies that they wanted to propagate. She should advise her brother to consult his legal team first before ranting to the media," said Sardillo.

"If it is following the rules of PET (Presidential Electoral Tribunal) that are being placed in issue, maybe Ms Marcos should also explain why she blatantly violated the rules when she gatecrashed the revision area," she added.

But did Imee really enter without authorization?

Only the protestant, protestee, their respective revisors, alternate revisors, lawyers, and other observers accredited by the PET are allowed to enter the 5th floor gymnasium at the SC-Court of Appeals building.

Sources, including Bongbong's lawyer George Garcia, confirmed Imee was able to enter the venue on Monday, along with Bongbong and his wife, Louise Araneta Marcos.

The Marcos camp's legal counsel said Bongbong and Louise are part of the accreditation list, but not Imee.

Nevertheless, Garcia said the governor was still "allowed by the PET to enter" on Monday morning.

He then said the PET had to "apologize" for this when the tribunal met with the lawyers of both the Marcos and Robredo camps on Monday afternoon.

"The PET even apologized for the inadvertence when they allowed Gov Imee...The PET said it will not happen again," said Garcia.

Rule 16 of the PET Revisor Guide for the Revision of Ballots under the Automated Election System says that the only ones who can observe the ballot recount proceedings at the venue are the protestant, protestee, their respective duly accredited party supervisor, party counsel, "and such other persons as may be authorized by the Tribunal."

The PET had required both the Marcos and Robredo camps to submit the names, addresses, and photos of all party revisors, alternate supervisors, and counsels for accreditation to gain access to the ballot recount site by March 27. – Rappler.com</s>VICE President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo said the poll recount for the 2016 Vice Presidential race starting today would be a fight for the truth.

The recount stemmed from a protest filed by former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. against Robredo, alleging fraud, in the 2016 vice presidential elections.

“This recount is, in a way, providential. The message of Easter is hope…hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel; that the truth will prevail. When I started this journey, a lot of people thought that this [Vice Presidential] bid is hopeless. But we continued fighting because we believed we are doing the right thing. And we won, and we know that we are fighting for the truth here [in this poll recount],” Robredo said in a speech after a mass organized by her supporters at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, the start of the recount in Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Iloilo.

These were the provinces chosen by Marcos as “best exemplifying poll fraud” in accordance with the rules set by the Supreme Court acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

“The fight is tough, the times are hard, but this has always been the lesson of my life. Everything came hard, but in the end, the light comes in. There is nothing to fear in this fight for the truth. This is the time of fear…fear of what is going to happen next…but we should have faith, continue the fight,” Robredo said.

“There are limitations, and we need to continue shining the light in darkness because if we quit, darkness will get worse. Many people are looking up to us to fight for them, that’s why we will soldier on,” said Robredo.

Robredo’s lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, for his part, is confident of Robredo’s chances that he is willing to give up lawyering if they lose.

“I will surrender my license to practice as a lawyer if Vice President Robredo loses this case,” Macalintal said.

“There are those who are asking me, ‘Do we have a chance?’ The right question would be, do they (Marcos’ camp) have a chance?,” Macalintal said.</s>The Philippine Supreme Court Monday started a recount of the country's vice presidential elections in 2016, after Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos accused Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo of stealing his victory.

The manual scrutiny of ballots cast in three provinces, began amid strong security in the offices of the Supreme Court's Court of Appeals in Manila and will continue until Friday.</s>FORMER Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. won’t win in his poll protest against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo by claiming that the undervotes belonged to him, the vice president’s lawyer said on Tuesday.

Romulo Macalintal was responding to a statement by Marcos spokesman Vic Rodriguez that the former legislator picked Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Iloilo for the recount of the votes in the 2016 vice presidential race because of the alleged high incidence of undervotes in these areas, characterized by abstentions or failure of a voter to shade the oval next to his or her preferred candidate at an appropriate threshold of 25 percent as set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Rodriguez said in a television interview with CNN Philippines that there were at least 290,000 undervotes in Camarines Sur, Negros Oriental and Iloilo—enough to overcome Robredo’s winning margin of 263,473 votes.

“I’m very, very confident that we won’t lose this case because with due respect, if they will only rely on undervotes, that’s not a ground for [an]election protest because undervotes happen due to the voters’ choice not to vote for a vice presidential candidate or [of]an error from a voter because the shading that was made on the ballot did not reach the shade threshold required by the Comelec. There’s also the overvote wherein a voter voted more than the required number of candidates for a position, like voting two or three for Vice President, which won’t be counted [by the vote counting machine],” Macalintal said in the same television interview.

“If they will count on undervotes or overvotes, they better forget their election protest because no protestant has ever won an election based on undervotes or overvotes. The presence of undervotes is not because the vote counting machines failed to count the votes [accurately]. It is due to the error committed by the voter,” Macalintal added.

The three provinces, which Marcos chose as “best exemplifying poll fraud” according to Supreme Court rules were either bailiwicks of Robredo (Camarines Sur where she is from) or her political party, the Liberal Party.

Robredo beat Marcos in these provinces by a total of 915,947 votes. LLANESCA T. PANTI</s>THE Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), will start the recount of votes for the electoral protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo on Monday.

The place for the revision of votes for the Marcos-Robredo electoral protest will be at the gymnasium at the 5th Floor of the SC-Court of Appeals (CA) Building in Padre Faura, Manila.

The recount will be conducted until Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with two 15-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch break.

Lawyer Jose Lemuel Arenas, a PET ad hoc committee member, said the revision was the process of verifying the ballots, to recount the votes of the parties, and to record the objections or claims of the parties.

He said there were 5,418 clustered precincts that would cover the three pilot provinces of Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental, which were chosen by Marcos as the best provinces where he could prove the irregularities he cited in his poll protest.

Arenas said for each table, there will be three revisors – the head revisor (employee of PET), the protestant’s revisor and the protestee’s revisor.

The revisors will not be allowed to bring in their personal belongings, including their mobile phones, inside the venue. The PET has provided a locker for their belongings.

He noted that the time limit per ballot box with less than 300 votes would be 5.5 hours while for 300-700 votes would be 8.25 hours and for more than 700 votes would be 11 hours.

The tribunal is expecting some 213 personnel to come in per day during the recount. These include 60 employees of the tribunal, psychometricians, lawyers and representatives of both parties, and the revisors.

The revisors are part of the tribunal’s committee tasked to examine the contested ballots.

Arenas, said that the PET was currently housing some 1,400 ballot boxes from Camarines Sur.

Arenas said that other ballot boxes were currently with the Commission on Elections, due to storage issues.

Once the recount on the first 1,400 ballot boxes is done, the PET will receive the other ballot boxes from Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

Members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Police Security Protection Group and PET guards will secure the recount venue round-the-clock.

CCTVs were also installed on all four corners of the recount venue and the storage area.

Lawyer Ma. Carina Cunanan, another PET ad hoc committee member, said that the tribunal was expecting to augment 101 security personnel this coming week with more members of the PNP.

She added that the parties would not be allowed to bring in their security.

The PET said it still could not determine when the recount would be finished.

The recount was initially scheduled in February, was later reset to March 19, and again moved to April 2.

Both camps agreed to withdraw all motions they had filed before the PET to be able to proceed with the recount.

Marcos filed the protest on June 29, 2016, claiming that the camp of Robredo cheated in the automated polls in May that year.

In his protest, Marcos contested the results from 132,446 precincts in 39,221 clusters, covering 27 provinces and cities.

In his preliminary conference briefing, Marcos also sought for a recount in Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

Robredo filed her answer in August 2017 and also submitted a counter-protest, questioning the results from more than 30,000 polling precincts in several provinces where Marcos won.

She also sought the dismissal of the protest for lack of merit and jurisdiction of the PET.

The high tribunal, in a ruling in early 2018, junked Robredo’s plea and proceeded with the case after finding the protest sufficient in form and substance.

Robredo won the vice presidential race in the May 2016 polls with 14,418,817 votes or 263,473 more than Marcos’ 14,155,344 votes. PNA
The manual recount of the votes begin for the 2016 vice presidential candidates, former Senator Bongbong Marcos and incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo.