FPJ loses to GMA in own precinct

If the elections last Monday were for barangay chairman, erstwhile leading opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. would have lost by a landslide to incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Poe lost the vote in his own precinct in Greenhills, San Juan, where he and wife Susan Roces voted.

Official administration campaign spokesman Michael Defensor released to Palace reporters yesterday the results of the presidential elections in Barangay Greenhills’ Precinct 227-A, which Mrs. Arroyo topped with 62 votes.

Poe’s 25 votes weren’t even good enough for second place. Ahead of him was runner-up Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who got 40 votes. Trailing Poe were televangelist Eddie Villanueva with 13 votes and former education secretary Raul Roco, 10.

Defensor cited the election results in Poe’s backyard as his riposte to claims of fraud by the actor’s camp. A number of exit polls have shown Poe trailing the President by a wide margin.

"Perhaps (the opposition) should not even think that we’re cheating when in (Poe’s) very own neighborhood, President Arroyo is still the winner," Defensor said.

The upscale barangay is also home to Poe’s bosom buddy, deposed President Joseph Estrada.

But Defensor couldn’t furnish reporters with the results of the vote in the precincts where Mrs. Arroyo or her family voted.

The President and her eldest son, Pampanga Vice Gov. Mikey Arroyo, voted in Precinct 0001-A/0001-B in Barangay San Nicolas in her hometown of Lubao, while her husband, Jose Miguel, and their children, Luli and Dato, voted near their family residence in La Vista, Quezon City.

Defensor, however, was confident that Mrs. Arroyo won the precincts in both Lubao and La Vista, as she won them in previous elections.

Defensor, Mrs. Arroyo and Roco are neighbors in La Vista.

Defensor said that by topping the vote in Pampanga the President escaped from a Poe rout of Region 3 or Central Luzon.

In the exits polls of the Social Weather Stations, Mrs. Arroyo is shown trailing Poe 31.35 to 42.85 percent in Region 3, which includes the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Tarlac, Zambales, Aurora and Bataan.

"Luckily, we had Pampanga to neutralize the loss of the President," he said.

Defensor conceded that the administration lost in some known opposition bailiwicks.

"We may have lost in some but were not routed," he said.