The lawyers of Vice President Noli “Kabayan” De Castro said yesterday that the revelations made by a military official at the senate hearing refute the allegations by former senator Loren Legarda of electoral cheating against the Vice President.


The ghost of electoral past seems to be catching up on her now. We now know that the Vice President is the real victim of “dagdag-bawas,” Armando Marcelo of Andres, Marcelo, Padernal, Guerrero and Paras (AMPGP) law offices, legal counsel of the Vice President, marveled.


At the Senate hearing on wiretapping the other day, General Francisco Gudani alleged that in one town of Lanao Del Sur, specifically Puna Bayabao, fraud occurred in the elections which favored Legarda.


Gudani revealed that in the vice presidential results for this town, De Castro got zero votes while Legarda surprisingly obtained 4,700 votes.


Incidentally, this was the province, which Legarda included in her protest. Her complaint of cheating should be addressed not to the Vice President but to her. This is a clear vindication for Vice President De Castro, Marcelo pointed out.


Marcelo added that Legarda conveniently failed to mention that in most of the provinces she included in her protest, she got higher votes, thereby negating her claims of being cheated.


Now that this has been exposed. The former senator must and should have the courage to admit that she does not and has never possessed the right to accuse anyone, much less the duly elected Vice President, Marcelo said.



Ref. VPMEDIA 05-138