Ms. Ronadale Zapata
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LOREN SHOULD REFRAIN FROM MEDIA GRANDSTANDING – DE CASTRO
13 October 2005

 

“Defeated Vice Presidential candidate Loren Legarda should place more attention on her protest rather than spend too much time grandstanding for the benefit of media,” said election lawyers from the Andres Marcelo Padernal Guerrero and Paras (AMPGP) Law Offices.

 

During a press conference yesterday, Legarda denounced the statements of the Vice President, calling him a “hypocrite” for saying that he has only the best interest of the Filipino people in mind in defending himself from Legarda’s election protest.

 

“Legarda should refrain from media grandstanding,” said Atty. Armando Marcelo, counsel for the Vice President.  “She has made it a habit to give a negative reaction every time we try to defend the Vice President.  She is merely showing that she has no respect for the proceedings already pending before the Supreme Court, and she would rather air out her grievances in media.”

 

According to lawyers of De Castro, it is the Vice President’s responsibility to the Filipino people to spare them the enormous costs of a baseless protest.  The motion to dismiss the protest was filed precisely to expedite the conclusion of the protest.  “If the protest is taking some time, the reason could be that the issues raised involved difficult questions of law, and it took some time for the Supreme Court to resolve them,” the lawyers added.

 

“By their nature, motions are meant to be resolved quickly, and we never filed them to cause delay,” said Atty. Marcelo.  “They were precisely filed in the hope of arriving at a quick solution to the issues raised by Legarda.  She should be careful in complaining about delay, since it has been the Supreme Court that has dictated the pace of the protest ever since the proceedings started.”

 

As far as the Vice President is concerned, whether the issues were resolved the quick way through the dismissal of the protest, or through the full route via re-canvassing of ballots, the end result would still be the same.   The people will still know that he never cheated in the elections, and that he was the duly elected vice president of the country.  “I believe in the judicial system, and the integrity of the PET, thus I and my lawyers have always worked within the system.”

 

Ref. VPMEDIA 05-147