MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), has ordered the Commission on Elections to preserve and safeguard records pertaining to the May 10, 2010 elections for the position of Vice President.

In a “precautionary protection order” dated August 31, the tribunal ordered the poll body, through Chairman Jose Melo, to preserve and safeguard the integrity of the ballot boxes, their contents and keys, list of voters with voting records, book of voters and other pertinent documents related to the vice-presidential race.

The order was sought by both camps of Vice President Jejomar Binay and rival Manuel “Mar” Roxas III, in connection to the electoral protest that the latter filed more than a month ago.

The former senator, who ran under the Liberal Party with President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, sought a manual revision of votes and to order a complete count of some 3 million votes that were considered stray or null by the poll body.

Roxas, who led in the surveys before his staggering loss in the elections, also asked the tribunal to form a technical panel of independent experts that would check the comprehensiveness of the country’s first automated election system.

In response, Binay filed a counter-protest contesting the results in thousands of precincts considered Roxas’s bailiwicks.

The PET’s precautionary order also directs all municipal treasurers, elections officers and their custodians to preserve the data storage devices containing the electronic data of election results in the contested 76,340 clustered precincts nationwide subject of the protest and counter-protest.

In a related development, the PET denied Binay’s Motion for Preliminary Hearing on Affirmative Defenses.

Lawyers use this pleading to have charges that have little chance of success at trial be dismissed promptly. This usually takes over the process for the main trial. - with reports from Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News