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THE
Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial candidates signed a
statement denouncing the numerous cases of actual and
attempted electoral fraud in the ongoing counting of
votes.
In a
statement Tuesday, the 11 candidates said they
“vehemently object to the inclusion of questionable
election results,” especially those from Maguindanao.
“ . . .
These results were fabricated and . . . no actual
election occurred [in Maguindanao],” the statement said
as GO also condemned the actual and attempted cases of
vote shaving and vote-padding against them.
With
this, GO called on watchdogs like the Namfrel, PPCRV,
Lente, Kontra Daya, among others, to continue to be
vigilant in guarding the vote of the people.
“Finally, we also call on President Arroyo and her Team
Unity (TU) to respect the voice of the people and to
refrain from frustrating their senatorial choices.”
Makati
City Mayor Jejomar Binay, the United Opposition
president, declined comment on the allegations of losing
GO senatorial candidate Nikki Coseteng of mathematical
improbability in the results of the first and second
placers in the Senate race.
He just
said, “We will talk to her.”
Coseteng
claimed the combined votes of fellow opposition
senatorial candidates Loren Legarda and second-running
Chiz Escudero are more than the number of actual voters.
“I did
not cheat Nikki . . .” Loren exclaimed when asked for
comment.
Aquilino
“Koko” Pimentel III of the GO slate, who is still
hanging on to the 12th spot in the senatorial race, will
file charges of electoral sabotage against six members
of the provincial board of canvassers in South and North
Cotabato for reportedly shaving his votes and adding
them to a senatorial candidate of TU. “This is a test
case of the new election law, which punishes people
involved in tampering of votes.”
Citing
the latest Comelec tally where he is closely tailed by
TU’s Miguel Zubiri, Pimentel claimed he is ahead of
Zubiri by some 200,000 votes.
“In
North Cotabato alone, my votes were shaved by 45,000 and
125,000 in South Cotabato. I am not taking this sitting
down and a TU candidate is behind this scheme.”
In
Makati City, the GO bloc had no reaction when the TU
filed 120 motions to “recall, recompute, recanvass, and
exclude all canvassed votes” in areas where only one
administration-backed TU candidate made it to the top
12. But GO bet
and
reelectionist Panfilo “Ping” Lacson commented, “I
thought they [TU] said it was a clean election?”
He also
called on Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner
Rene Sarmiento to resign only as head of a task force in
Mindanao (which Sarmiento had already done, citing ill
health) but as commissioner of the Comelec.
Sarmiento denied committing anything “illegal” when he
allowed the transfer of blank election returns to the
Maria Cristina Hotel in Iligan City.
Lacson
reminded him that election returns should be kept with
the Provincial Treasurer’s Office and not somewhere
else.
On the
commissioner’s resignation as task force head in
Mindanao, Binay said he knew Sarmiento to be a good man
from their martial law protest days as part of human
rights lawyers group MABINI. |
