Ms. Dale Zapata
83321148/8334507
STATEMENT
OF THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT ON ALLEGATIONS OF THE LEGARDA CAMP
AND MR. TABAYOYONG THAT VP NOLI DE CASTRO BENEFITED FROM THE SAN MATEO
RAID
19 August 2005
If Senator
Legarda indeed believes that the allegedly tampered election documents are of any
legal use to her, then we
encourage her to pursue all available legal remedies to recover them. It is
unfair for the senator to
point an accusing finger at the Vice President without any factual basis.
Needless to say, her
malicious accusation is uncalled for and unfair.
Vice
President Noli “Kabayan” de Castro has always been an advocate for upholding civil
rights of persons, including
their right be secure against
unreasonable searches and seizures. He will not tolerate any violation of these constitutionally-protected rights.
Panatag kami
sa malinis na pagkapanalo ni Bise Presidente Noli de Castro noong nakaraang
halalan. We are certain that
the Vice President was not involved in any electoral fraud.
Lastly, under
the constitution, the proper forum duty-bound to resolve Senator Legarda’s
election protest is the
Presidential Electoral Tribunal. The Vice President will support all
reasonable proposals to
speed-up the resolution of the election protest. As in fact, he has agreed to the proposal
of Legarda’s camp to use, in
part, the election returns as basis for the recount instead of the usual
tedious recount of ballots.
Atty. Jesse
H.T. Andres
Chief of Staff
Ref no. VPMEDIA 05-111
©
Copyright
2005
Office of the Vice President (OVP)
Management Information Services
Division (MISD). All rights reserved.
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