MANILA (2ND UPDATE) - Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday paid an P8-million cash deposit as initial installment for her counter-protest to former Senator Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos' challenge to her May 2016 electoral victory.

Robredo's payment is in accordance with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal's order after her motion to defer payment was rejected.

The tribunal earlier directed Robredo and Marcos to shell out a total of P81.46 million for their separate election protests.

Of this amount, P66.02 million will be used for the retrieval of poll materials for the protest of Marcos, while P15.44 million will be used to retrieve election materials for Robredo's petition.

The Vice President said it was difficult for her to raise P8 million, which why she previously asked the Supreme Court to give her more time.

"Hindi po naging madali para sa atin na maglikom ng P8 million na deposit. Kaya po ito 'yung dahilan kung bakit humihingi sana tayo ng konting palugit sa Supreme Court," she told her supporters in front of the Supreme Court.

"'Yung P8 million, hirap na hirap tayo para ibigay. 'Yung P36 million po ng mga Marcos sa isang iglap andiyan na kaagad," she said.

Marcos last month paid a check amounting to P36.023 million.

• Marcos pays P36-M for poll protest vs Robredo

Lawyer Barry Gutierrez said Robredo had to borrow money from relatives in order to come up with P8 million.

He added that the Robredo camp is still studying ways on how to pool the money for the second tranche of payment required by the Supreme Court, which amounts to about P7 million.

Robredo has until July 14 to complete the total P15.44 million payment.

Robredo admitted it is difficult to fight Marcos who can easily pay a large amount of money. But she promised to continue to fight to prevent the Marcoses from returning to power.

"Alam po natin na malaking dahilan kung bakit tayo tumakbo ay para harangan 'yung pagbabalik ulit ng pamilyang Marcos sa kapangyarihan," she added.

The former lawmaker and son of the late dictator lodged the electoral complaint, questioning the integrity of the 2016 polls following the alleged violations committed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Smartmatic when the technology provider changed a script in the transparency server in the evening of May 9.

Robredo defeated Marcos by more than 200,000 votes in the 2016 vice-presidential race.