VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Columnist Tundag falsely claims Marcos Jr. ‘accepted’ dismissal of 2016 election protest

Columnist Jerry Suico Tundag of Cebu-based newspaper The Freeman falsely claimed in a tweet that presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.  had “accepted” the verdict of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), which dismissed in its entirety his poll protest against Vice President Leni Robredo six years ago.

STATEMENT

Tundag, former editor-in-chief of the newspaper, said:

“When #BBM lost in 2016 (many say he was cheated), he went through the process of a protest and accepted the verdict.”

Source: Jerry Suico Tundag Twitter Account, “When #BBM lost in 2016…,” April 25, 2022

He then went on to revive a fake quote, which was attributed to Robredo, that says:

“Leni, doing poorly in all surveys, says the only way she’ll lose is if she is cheated. There’ll be trouble, it s (sic) said. This shows the stuff of which they’re made.”

FACT

The PET unanimously dismissed “the entire electoral protest” of the former senator on Feb. 16, 2021. Less than three months later on May 11, Marcos Jr. filed a motion for reconsideration, asking the tribunal to review his third cause of action in which he sought to annul the results of the 2016 vice presidential race in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Basilan. 

(Read VERA FILES FACT SHEET: Understanding the PET’s junking of Marcos’ poll protest vs. Robredo) 

Tundag’s tweet also carried the fake quote attributed to Robredo. VERA Files Fact Check recently debunked such claims, which have been circulating online (Read VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Robredo DID NOT threaten chaos if she loses, has NO alliance with NPA). 

BACKSTORY

The former senator’s poll protest cited “terrorism, intimidation[,] and harassment of voters as well as pre-shading of ballots in all of the 2,756 protested clustered precincts that functioned in the aforesaid areas” as reasons for annulling the elections in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Basilan.

However, the PET dismissed the argument after the camp of Marcos Jr. failed to provide evidence substantiating its claims of “electoral irregularities”  in the three areas.