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Malacañang on Tuesday vowed to protect the sanctity of
the ballot and said that it would not allow any form of
fraud to mar next week’s electoral exercise.
Cabinet
Secretary Ricardo Saludo was reacting to the claim of a
group of retired military officials that there would be
at least “12 centers of massive fraud” during the May 14
elections under an alleged cheating plan dubbed as
“Oplan Mercury Rising.”
Reacting
to the alleged plan, Saludo said: “The policy of the
government is to uphold democracy and to not allow
government resources, soldiers and teachers to be used
as tools to influence the outcome of the elections.”
Team
Unity (TU) spokesman Joseph Ace Durano said that proper
mechanisms are in place to deter electoral fraud.
“The
Commission on Elections (Comelec) reshuffled members of
the board of canvassers, added one more election return
for public posting, and with the Supreme Court created
special courts to handle election protests. On top of
these initiatives, there are multisectoral movements to
observe the conduct of the elections,” Durano said.
Presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio said that
while he believed the Armed Forces would not get
involved in electoral fraud after it was accused of such
practice during the last elections, the Comelec should
investigate the matter.
“I’d
like to think it’s not true and the military will have
no involvement in such schemes. After all, I believe the
Armed Forces appears earnest in redeeming itself from
the unjust accusations of involvement in alleged
election fraud in 2004. Just the same, it’s essential
for the Comelec to look into it and forestall the
possibility of such electoral crime being committed,”
Claudio said.
The
Genuine Opposition (GO) meanwhile said that the
political advertisement against former president Joseph
Estrada will not affect the chances of its candidates.
Belittling the political ad showing the dubious traits
of his father with the political statement: “Ito ba ang
Oposisyon?” deputy campaign manager and reelectionist
San Juan Mayor Joseph Victor Ejercito said that it also
showed how desperate the Arroyo administration is.
Ejercito
also stressed that the political ad, which also showed
his father gambling inside a casino with his close
friend Atong Ang, will not change the chances of GO
candidates in winning this election especially in the
national level.
Adel
Tamano, GO spokesman on leave, said that the political
ad was a palace campaign that is “awash with cash but
has no credibility.”
GO
senatorial bet Francis Escudero topped the list of
winning senatorial candidates in a mock election
participated in by 868 University of the Philippines
students on May 7.
Agham
Party-List group, perennial party-list election
topnotcher Bayan Muna and other strong contenders such
as Anakpawis, the women’s party-list Gabriela and
Akbayan garnered 102 votes, representing 12.6 percent of
the mock election “voters.”
Escudero
got a total of 464 votes, or 53.5 percent of the total
votes cast. The mock election, sponsored by the
Nagkakaisang Iskolar para sa Pamantasan at Sambayanan (Kaisa)
was the first to be held in UP.
Francis
Pangilinan, who like Escudero is a UP graduate, bagged
second place with 399 votes or 45.9 percent.
Another
UP graduate, GO bet Loren Legarda, secured the third
place by garnering 372 votes (42.8 percent).
The
others on the top 12 are Joker Arroyo (TU) who got 337
votes; Manny Villar (GO) who got 326 votes; Benigno
“Noynoy” Aquino (GO)–296 votes, Alan Peter Cayetano
(GO)–284; Panfilo “Ping” Lacson (GO) –246, Ralph Recto (TU)–245
votes; Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri (TU)–242 votes; Edgardo
Angara (TU)–232 votes, and Michael “Tol” Defensor–213
votes.The only non-UP graduate on the top 12 is Aquino.
Meanwhile, TU said the camp of Estrada appears to be
engaged too in junking GO senatorial candidates, given
that one group closely identified with the ousted leader
is backing only three GO bets—Panfilo Lacson, Antonio
Trillanes and Francis Escudero.
The
public endorsement by a group fanatically loyal to
former president Estrada of just these three bets along
with independent candidate Gregorio Honasan has only
worsened the widespread junking among GO bets, TU bet
Luis “Chavit” Singson said.
“Considering that Ronald Lumbao, who heads the People’s
Movement Against Poverty (PMAP), is a factotum of
Estrada, it seems unlikely that PMAP will make such a
selective endorsement of GO candidates without the
blessings of the ousted president,” Singson added.
He was
reacting to earlier news reports quoting Lumbao as
saying that PMAP is only endorsing the senatorial bids
of Lacson, Trillanes and Escudero along with Honasan.
“The
move by the PMAP to support only a few candidates from
GO is symptomatic of the internal struggles besetting
GO, which is among the many reasons why it is heading
for total defeat in the hands of Team Unity on May 14,”
Singson added. --With C. Mocon and J. Mayuga |
