Actress Cynthia Patag urges PET to uphold 25% shading threshold

Purportedly on behalf of over 5,000 Ilonggo voters, actress Cynthia Patag has expressed support for Vice President Leni Robredo's preferred shading threshold in determining the validity of votes in the ongoing vice presidential votes recount.

On Thursday, Patag filed with the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), a one-page letter that urged it to uphold the 25-percent shading threshold to prevent supposed voter disenfranchisement.

She said the PET could be "violating" its mandate to "uphold and protect the 1987 Constitution" it it keeps implementing the 50-percent threshold in the vote recount that is part of the poll protest between Robredo and former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

"Our votes will be disenfranchised and our voices will not be heard if the PET continues to insist on using the 50-percent threshold in the manual recount of votes," the letter said.

She said she called barangay captains in Iloilo to urge their constituents to sign the letter, which came with a stack of paper at least three inches thick containing the names, precinct numbers, municipalities, and signatures of what she said were 5,500 voters.

The actress' letter is the latest formal expression of support for Robredo's appeal for the tribunal to direct the application of the 25-percent threshold -- which she claims was the standard the Commission on Elections used for vote-counting during the 2016 election -- in the vote recount.

The PET has "noted without action" at least three similar appeals for the application of the 25-percent threshold.

Iloilo, Camarines Sur, and Negros Oriental were the pilot provinces chosen by former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to be the subject of an over-three-month-old manual vote recount. — RSJ, GMA News