Ms. Ronadale Zapata
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KABAYAN POSES NO OBJECTION TO EXPEDITE POLL PROTEST
11 August 2005


The camp of Vice President Noli ‘Kabayan’ De Castro would not oppose the request of the lawyers of defeated vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda for another preliminary conference to expedite the resolution of the Legarda electoral protest against the Vice-President, according to Atty. Armando Marcelo, lawyer of Vice-President De Castro.

Ang kampo ni Vice President De Castro ay hindi tumututol sa anumang hakbang na magpapabilis sa paglutas ng electoral protest ng kanyang katunggali. Higit sinuman, nais niyang mapagpasyahan na ng Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) ang kasong ito nang malaman ng lahat ang napili ng mga botante bilang kanilang Pangalawang Pangulo at maipagpatuloy ang paglilingkod sa ating mamamayan nang walang iba pang hadlang.

Marcelo explained that the camp of Vice President De Castro in fact was the first to propose the pre-conference briefing and has been in the forefront of putting things in order to expedite the resolution of the case.

It was regrettable, however, that the camp of the protestant resorted to presenting its evidence through press conferences and releases instead of waiting for the proper time to present it before the PET’

Marcelo was referring to the recent moves of the Legarda camp of holding press conferences where alleged tampered election returns were shown members of the media. Not being a proper legal forum, the so-called evidence were naturally not subjected to appropriate authentication procedures. Instead, media mileage was merely obtained to the distinct prejudice of duly-elected Vice-President De Castro.

In requesting for another pre-conference briefing, Marcelo expressed optimism that the Leagarda camp
would now choose to bring their case before the proper forum, the PET, rather than ventilate their before chosen members of media.