Friday, July 13, 2007 Poll body may proclaim Zubiri on Saturday
UNLESS the Supreme Court (SC) stops them, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has scheduled this Saturday the proclamation of Team Unity (TU) senatorial bet Juan Miguel Zubiri as the 12th winning senator.
"We will proceed if no TRO (temporary restraining order) will be issued by the Supreme Court. The soonest is Saturday," said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez.
The SC has set another round of oral arguments on Friday on a petition of Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial candidate Aquilino Pimentel III to exclude the votes from Maguindanao in the canvassing being conducted by the Comelec en banc sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).
"It will all really depend on how the oral arguments turn out. If a TRO is issued, obviously we stop. But if no TRO is issued, then like in the previous occasions when no TRO was issued, it would appear that there would be no legal impediment for us to go ahead with the process," Jimenez added.
Jimenez said the canvassing of votes by NBOC showed that it is already impossible for Pimentel to overtake Zubiri because the administration's senatorial candidate already has an 18,372 vote-lead over Pimentel.
Zubiri has 11,001,730 votes while Pimentel has 10,983,358 votes. (MSN/Sunnex)
