PET suspends proceedings on Loren’s poll protest vs Noli

The Supreme Court (SC) sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) suspended proceedings yesterday on the electoral protest filed by former senator Loren Legarda against Vice President Noli de Castro.

In its two-page resolution, the PET granted the joint motion to suspend the revision proceedings of ballots from Pampanga filed on June 26 by both Legarda and De Castro.

"The Tribunal resolved to grant the joint motion to suspend the revision proceedings dated June 26, 2006 filed by counsels for the parties," the PET said.

The PET also directed Legarda and De Castro’s lawyers to meet on July 5 with the Clerk of the High Tribunal for the preliminary hearing or conference on the partial determination of Legarda’s protest.

In their joint motion to suspend proceedings, Legarda and De Castro asked the PET to conduct a "partial determination" of Legarda’s electoral protest against De Castro based on the results of the revision of ballots from Cebu and the results of the recanvassing of election returns (ERs) from Lanao del Sur.

The revision of ballots from Cebu and the recanvassing of election returns from Lanao del Sur form part of the first aspect of Legarda’s electoral protest against De Castro.

The PET also granted Legarda’s withdrawal of portions of the designated pilot areas of the first aspect of her protest and considered the retabulation of election returns in these pilot areas in six municipalities of Lanao del Sur completed and terminated.

"(Legarda) manifested that she is waiving and withdrawing the protest on the six contested municipalities of Lanao del Sur (the) election returns (of which) could not be found as reported in the May 26, 2006 memorandum of Atty. Orlando Cariño," De Castro and Legarda agreed.

On June 13, De Castro, to expedite the resolution of Legarda’s protest, asked the PET to determine the validity of the election protest filed by Legarda based on the recount of votes from Cebu and Lanao del Sur.

De Castro said the bulk of his 800,000-vote lead came from Cebu and, as of June 9, the revision of ballots from Cebu was 97 percent complete and is expected to be terminated within this week.

He also said his lead of votes over Legarda was not materially affected, although Legarda objected to almost 90 percent of De Castro’s ballots.

De Castro said the partial determination of the validity of Legarda’s election protest, based on the results of the revision of ballots from Cebu and the recanvassing of election returns from Lanao del Sur, is allowed under PET rules.

"It could avoid the presentation of voluminous documents in one tranche and the examination of millions of contested ballots, which the PET could not otherwise decide or act upon in one sitting," De Castro said.

In a statement, Legarda said she has not withdrawn her election protest against De Castro despite her decision to join De Castro in asking the PET to suspend the retabulation of the election returns from six towns in Lanao del Sur, which were reported lost while in the custody of Congress.

Legarda said the election returns that have been retabulated so far in Lanao del Sur and the ballots examined in Cebu already provided more than ample proof of electoral fraud victimizing her and the late Fernando Poe Jr., Legarda’s running mate and United Opposition standard-bearer in the 2004 presidential derby.

She said a direct examination of the election returns from four Lanao del Sur towns, including the municipalities of Taraka and Balindong, and the video of how the election return switching was allegedly conducted inside the premises of the House of Representatives, are "empirical pieces of evidence of cheating."

"Being crude fakes, the (election returns) from Congress failed to (with)stand scrutiny vis-à-vis the returns belonging to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) and those (election returns) provided (to) the dominant political parties," Legarda said.

She said 60 percent of the ballots cast in Cebu had been set aside by her revisers for being "obviously" forged, bearing similar handwriting and lacking the necessary security seals and other features that distinguish authentic ballots from fakes.

She said De Castro’s lead of about 800,000 votes in the national tally came from Cebu alone. Legarda added that a partial determination of the results in Cebu and those from Lanao del Sur was enough to overturn De Castro’s alleged lead against her.

"I am confident that with those two provinces alone, the true will of the Filipino people will shine through," Legarda said.