Former Senator Bongbong Marcos continues his bid to question the results of the 2016 vice-presidential election where he lost to Vice President Leni Robredo. On Nov. 9, Marcos filed a motion seeking the inhibition of Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen from the case and “asked for a re-raffle of the election protests and resolution to other pending incidents related to his protest.”

In his appeal, Marcos claims that the associate justice intentionally delayed his election protest for almost a year due to a “well-documented bias” against the senator and his family. Among the signatories in this motion are former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Estelito Mendoza, former solicitor general during the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

The defeated vice presidential candidate backs his claim about Leonen’s hostility towards his family by citing the Associate Justice’s past pronouncements and appointment to the high court by former President Benigno S. Aquino III. “One might surmise that the electoral protest would be the perfect venue for Associate Justice Leonen to exact vengeance,” wrote Marcos.

BBM: Justice Leonen is hostile to my family. | @T2TupasINQ

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) November 9, 2020

Appointed in 2012, Leonen is the youngest justice named to the Court since 1938. In 2016, he was among the five high tribunal members who voted against the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. In a 94-page document, Leonen also expressed his strong dissent towards the then-proposal where he stated that “Ferdinand E. Marcos is not a hero.”

“Former President Ferdinand E. Marcos presided over a regime that caused untold sufferings for millions of Filipinos. Gross violations of human rights were suffered by thousands. The public coffers contributed to by impoverished Filipinos were raided. Ferdinand E. Marcos stood by as his family, associates and cronies engaged in a systematic plunder. Ths national debt ballooned during his regime. He was eventually ousted by a public uprising,” wrote Leonen in the document.

Marcos’ electoral protest was turned over to Associate Justice Leonen in October 2019 after former justice-in-charge Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa dissented from the majority by voting for the case’s immediate dismissal. In 2018, Marcos also filed a motion to inhibit Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa from the case due to “evident bias and manifest partiality.” However, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal dismissed the senator’s motion and warned him against making “any unfounded and inappropriate accusation” in the future.

Header photo from official Facebook page of Bongbong Marcos

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