MANILA – Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen is now the magistrate in charge of the election protest filed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo, ABS-CBN News has confirmed from sources in the high court.

The sources said the election protest was raffled off to Leonen after Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa lost in the voting on the election protest on October 15.

Caguioa, together with recently retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, had wanted to dismiss the election protest after the results of the initial recount in the 3 pilot provinces chosen by Marcos showed no substantial recovery of votes on his part.

The recount in Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Oriental showed Robredo’s slim 263,000-vote lead over Marcos in the 2016 vice presidential polls even increased by around 15,000 votes.

• PET: Robredo lead grew by 15,000 votes in initial poll protest recount

Leonen voted along with 10 other magistrates to give Robredo and Marcos time to comment on initial results of the manual recount.

He earlier defended the ruling, citing due process.

“You do not want a court to condemn without hearing, no matter what the consequences are, you do not want to condemn,” he said before a gathering of lawyers in Manila on October 19.

• Leonen cites due process, defends PET ruling on Marcos-Robredo poll protest

Former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban told ANC’s Headstart on October 17 he wants either Leonen or Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe to be the member-in-charge of the electoral protest in case Caguioa is replaced.

“To my mind, I’ll be revealing a little secret, I think it should be Leonen or Bernabe because to my knowledge, they were the ones who pushed for this resolution to have comments first,” he told ANC’s Karen Davila.

• Ex-chief justice wants Leonen or Bernabe as next ponente in Marcos poll protest

Carpio confirmed to reporters Tuesday night that there was an “instruction” to re-raffle the case.

“I don't know if there was a re-raffle. As of Oct. 26, I was no longer part of the raffle committee but I understand there was an instruction to re-raffle,” he said.