Loren Legarda’s electoral protest proves fraud in 2004 presidential polls
text & photo HADER GLANG

“My protest has shown the fraud already.” Thus how Former Senator Loren Legarda reacted when asked the latest on her electoral protest against Vice President Noli de Castro in the 2004 vice presidential elections.

Legarda claimed the substituted election returns of Lanao del Sur are evident and that more than 60 percent of the ballots of the Province of Cebu are faked with different kind of papers used and with no watermark feature.

“Therefore if there is any one thing that my protest have proven, it is the faked ballots of Cebu and the substituted election returns of Lanao del Sur,” Legarda noted.

Atty. Romulo Makalintal, De Castro’s lawyer, belied Legarda’s claim, saying that no evidence of fraud had been discovered in Cebu and Lanao del Sur in the recount being undertaken by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).

He said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President De Castro have won by a landslide over opposition standard-bearer the late Fernando Poe Jr. and the former senator in Visayas and Mindanao.

Meanwhile, Legarda told Zamboanga Southwall though the judicial process is quite slow, she does not blame the Supreme Court. “My point is that it has served its purpose. It has accomplished its task of showing the fraud and the truth of 2004.”

She said whether the recounting will be finished or not that is a big question because the whole process is very slow. “All I’m saying that I’m realistic enough to see that the process is expensive and slow. At least good enough if we are able to show the fraud, which we have already.”

Commenting on the claim that De Castro has a wider lead over his opponent as seen in the original copy of election returns from Congress, Legarda said the lead of Noli by 880,000 votes is almost overcome.

Legarda has protested more than a 100,000 precincts throughout the country and so far the Court has recounted only the provinces of Cebu & Lanao del Sur, where the election was reportedly marred by dagdag-bawas (vote-shaving/padding) operations and widespread irregularities.

“Assuming we finish the recounting in pilot provinces by the end of the year, that alone is more than sufficient to overcome the lead of my opponent nationwide because his lead is only 1.5% at the whole process,” she said.

Legarda visited Zamboanga City last Monday to grace a tree planting activity by multi-sectoral groups upon the invitation by the Task Force Siembrada, an advocate group in the preservation of environment that enjoins every member of the 700,000 population of the city to plant at least ten trees a year.

“I am with you in your Arbor Week celebration. I am with you in protecting the environment in Zamboanga City and in the preservation of your watershed. I’m with you in promoting the culture and heritage of your historic city,” she said.

“It is not enough that only one group is leading the tree planting, it should be all of us not only in planting trees but also follow the environmental laws and do pro-active measures like tree planting.” (ZS)