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“The ghosts of 2004 will continue to haunt Mr. Noli de Castro for
the rest of his life.”
Thus spoke feisty Sen. Loren Legarda, adding
that “[My electoral loss] is not just my loss, it is the loss of
the entire Filipino nation.”
Legarda, though, insisted that she has accepted
the dismissal of her electoral protest on grounds that she had
already been elected senator and for her failure to put up the
required amount to pursue the case.
She said, however, that she couldn’t accept
her case’s dismissal for lack of evidence.
“How can six copies of election returns in
Lanao del Sur have different results, five of which showing my
landslide victory, while the Congress’ copy showed de Castro
winning over me?” she asked.
Loren raised these questions, expressing regrets
that the Supreme Court, convened as the Presidential Electoral
Tribunal, has junked her electoral protest.
“The Filipino people know that there was
massive fraud in the 2004 elections which has been the cause of our
political instability,” she said, stressing that “The fraud is
clear in the fake election returns in Congress from Lanao del Sur.
This is not the triumph of truth, but the gross travesty of justice
and subversion of the truth.”
Among others, in a 20-page resolution penned by
Senior Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, the PET said Legarda failed to
pay an additional P3.9 million for the recount of ballots from Cebu,
Pampanga, and Maguindanao and that she had not adequately and
convincingly rebutted the presumption that as public documents, the
Congress-retrieved ER (election return) copies, used for the
proclamation of the protestee (de Castro) by the National Board of
Canvassers, are authentic and duly executed in the regular course of
official business.
Loren’s running mate, Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ),
filed a similar electoral protest against President Gloria Arroyo,
but died without seeing it through.
“FPJ died, and I carried on with this fight
for truth singlehandedly, with my dedicated lawyers and with the
Filipino people solidly behind me. It is a fight for truth, fairness
and justice. I will not be cowed.”
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