LEGARDA POISONING PUBLIC PERCEPTION

WITH HER “ROAD SHOW” ELECTION PROTEST

 21 July 2005

            Loren Legarda knows she will lose in her election protest, which is why she is poisoning public perception with her wild and fabricated stories of election fraud. 

 

            This was the reaction of the lawyers of Vice President Noli de Castro to the recent barrage of press releases of Legarda wherein she revealed alleged fabricated election returns supposedly showing cheating during the May 2004 elections. 

 

            Atty. Armando M. Marcelo of the Andres Marcelo Padernal Guerrero and Paras Law Offices commented that the election returns shown by Legarda to the media cannot be relied upon without proper authentication.  “The proper venue for this is the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) and not press conferences,” said Atty. Marcelo.

 

            Atty. Marcelo also pointed out that the public should be wary of the election returns Legarda is showing them for it might turn out that they are not copies of the authentic election returns.  “The PET has yet to open the ballot boxes containing the copies of the election returns transmitted to Congress,” Atty. Marcelo explained.

 

            As to the alleged handwriting experts to be employed by Legarda as witnesses, Atty. Marcelo commented that Legarda has not even identified much less given the qualifications of these supposed handwriting experts such that their alleged expertise has not been established.  Atty. Marcelo again pointed out that the proper venue for Legarda to bring out her alleged expert witnesses is the PET and not the media.  

 

            “All Legarda has now are questionable documents and illogical surmises to link the Vice President to alleged massive cheating during the May 2004 elections.  Obviously, Legarda cannot produce any direct evidence of cheating against the Vice President, for the Vice President was not involved in any election irregularity,” Atty. Marcelo said.

 

            The lawyers of the Vice President said that all the recent press appearances of Legarda show that her election protest was really meant as a publicity gimmick to keep her in the public eye.  The Vice President’s lawyers are confident that a speedy resolution of Legarda’s election protest will only fortify the Vice President’s victory during the May 2004 elections.  They said that Legarda knows this, which is why she is trying to brainwash the minds of the public that the Vice President cheated to win the last elections so she can cry injustice when her election protest eventually reveals that she really lost. 

 

“The Filipino people deserve more credit than what Legarda gives them. What is clear is that the Filipino people gave Vice President de Castro the mandate to lead our country,” Atty. Marcelo pointed out.

Ref. No. VPMEDIA 05-094