Legarda worried over possible poll fraud

MANILA, Philippines - With the first poll automation this May, vice-presidential candidate Loren Legarda (NP-NPC) expressed fears yesterday over possible poll fraud.

During The STAR’s vice presidential series, Legarda admitted that it would be a big challenge for her and the Nacionalista Party, led by running mate Sen. Manuel Villar, to protect their votes.

Legarda, who decried poll fraud in the 2004 elections, noted the contrast in the manual and automated elections, making it hard to detect poll manipulations in May.

“I can’t use the lessons learned in 2004 now because it’s computerized. One cannot imagine how to fight the fraud in computerized elections,” she said.

She called for vigilance to help protect their votes and ensure the victory of the entire NP slate in the elections.

“The challenge is that the preparedness in vigilance and guarding your votes is different in 2004 when it was still manual voting. So I don’t know how to guard my votes, I let my people in the party and Manny to help protect our votes together,” she said.

Legarda, who has gone through four national elections as senator and then vice president in 2004 and this year, noted that election now is “more expensive because my rivals have more resources than I do.”

She noted that her main rival, Sen. Manuel Roxas II, has spent a billion pesos in political advertisements for the past two years when he started gearing up for the presidency.

She said she decided to run for vice-president because she thinks she can do more to help the Filipino people.

“Why am I running for vice? At 50, there is not much more I would want in life. God has been good to me. While I have made mistakes, I also had triumphs. While I had many sad moments, I also had many blessings. I believe I can do much as vice-president for now and help my president.”

She said she would still continue her United Nations assignment for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation even if she becomes vice-president.

Defending Villar

Shrugging off criticisms of her sudden decision to run with Villar, Legarda said she was left with no running mate when Sen. Francis Escudero suddenly dropped from the presidential race. Legarda and Escudero were being groomed then by the Nationalist People’s Coalition as running mates.

“In 1995, I did not know Manny Villar from Adam, yet I choose him as one of the 10 most admired Filipinos of that year. I admired him from a distance because I read about him in a foreign magazine as the brown taipan,” she said, recalling her stint with “Inside Story,” a public affairs program with ABS-CBN.

She said Villar’s rag to riches story got her interested even then.

Believing that Villar would win the elections, Legarda defended her vote against Villar during a coup in the Senate in the November 2007.

“I am the 14th person that Manny approached to get my vote for the Senate President. And I told him I committed my vote for Nene (Pimentel), he is also a good man and a colleague,” she explained.

“When you don’t vote for a colleague, it does not mean you don’t like him or you hate him. That’s the dynamics in the Senate, you don’t always vote together.” 

“It’s not an ouster, but as I said, when you vote for another colleague, it does not mean he is your enemy. We don’t take things personally.”

On Erap

In her role in the impeachment move against former President Joseph Estrada, Legarda said she would have wanted that the process led to a fair judgment.

“On hindsight now, the process should have commenced. We should have allowed the defense to present its case and there should have been a verdict so there was a fair judgment and a fair court,” she said.