Loren asks SC to junk motion to dismiss her electoral protest

Former senator Loren Legarda asked yesterday the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to deny Vice President Noli de Castro’s motion to dismiss her electoral protest.

"The instant motion to dismiss filed by Mr. De Castro is nothing but another legal ploy to and maneuver to unduly delay and prolong the early disposition and resolution of the instant protest by this Honorable Tribunal," she said in a nine-page opposition to De Castro’s motion.

"All these allegations by protestee De Castro that protestant Legarda supposedly increased the number of protested precincts are maliciously misleading and intended to get the better of the Honorable Tribunal.

"Protestant Legarda did not increase or attempt to add protested precincts in the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Surigao del Sur, and hence there was no amendment whatsoever to the protest," Legarda said.

However, De Castro’s lawyer, Romulo Macalintal said Legarda increased the protested precincts in Lanao del Sur to 2,500 from 2,300 and from 350 to 477 in Surigao del Sur.

Adding more precincts to those originally questioned should not be allowed because it was done after the period to file an electoral protest expired on July 24, 2004, he added.

Macalintal said it is not "realistic" for Legarda’s lawyers to propose that the questioned election returns be immediately opened and brought before the PET since this can be resolved within a day.

"Ms. Legarda appears too desperate in her bid to win the vice presidential post," he said.

"She failed to realize that if the returns she showed media are fake, these cannot be admitted as evidence by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal."

Macalintal said Legarda "miserably" forgot that in her protest, she admitted that all the returns coming from Congress which she wanted to be recanvassed are genuine and duly executed.

"That being so, she cannot change or amend her position now before the media through the expediency of a press conference," he said.

"She has to present her case before the PET. Perhaps she had realized that she cannot make it legally at PET so she is trying to win her case via trial by publicity."

Macalintal said Legarda’s electoral complaint must be verified under oath if she indeed believed that she was cheated of the vice presidency.

Legarda’s protest is a "fruitless" quest, and that she should give up her protest and use the money instead to seek public office in the 2007 elections, he added.

On the other hand, Legarda said it is of urgent national interest that the public should know the truth about the 2004 presidential and vice presidential elections.

"The public has the right to information on matters of public interest," she said.

"This is especially true in case of elections in which the sovereign will of the people has been expressed to choose their representatives in Congress, their local officials, and more important, the highest government executive, namely, the president and vice president."

Legarda said the truth is that she stated in her manifestation and supplemental manifestation the actual number of precincts in the protested areas, as shown in documents from the Commission on Elections.

"This project of precincts is the same document cited by protestee De Castro in his answer, dated Aug. 5, 2004, and likewise utilized by him for purposes of indicating the number of precincts counter-protested by him," she said.

"As stated by this Honorable Tribunal in its resolution, dated Jan. 18, 2005, as pointed by this protestee, the project of precincts is no official document issued by the Commission on Elections, of which we can take judicial notice."

Legarda said it is necessary to state the correct number of precincts in the protested areas as reflected by the project of precincts issued last May 7 to avoid confusion and to ensure that the correct amount of cash be deposited.

"It is for this very same reason that in the resolution of this Honorable Tribunal, dated July 5, 2005... specifically resolved, among others, to direct the acting clerk of the Tribunal to verify the total number of precincts that I am protesting in the light of the above manifestation of myself," she said.

By filing a motion to dismiss her protest, De Castro has "maliciously" resurrected an issue which the Supreme Court has already settled, Legarda said.