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Friday, April 30, 2004
Eddie Villanueva supporters stage rally
MANILA -- About 20,000 supporters of Christian preacher Eduardo Villanueva staged a rally in the Philippines' financial district Thursday in support of their leader's May 10 presidential election bid.
Villanueva, a hefty 30 points behind incumbent leader Gloria Arroyo in the opinion polls, lambasted his rival as "a poor leader and economist" who had failed the business sector and the Filipino people in her three years in power.
The leader of the Jesus is Lord television ministry, speaking atop a makeshift stage at the Makati business district, faulted Arroyo for high taxes, high lending rates, and corruption in government.
"That is why Philippine business is calling for a change. It needs a fresh start," he told his throng of yellow-clad supporters.
He also called on them to guard against "massive corruption of the electoral process."
He accused polling outfits of deliberately underestimating his support at five percent of the electorate "in order to condition the minds of the people that only a few would vote for Brother Eddie", referring to his nickname.
Police estimated the rally at about 20,000.
Unfazed
Meanwhile, presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson's legal team Thursday said they are unfazed by the latest Supreme Court (SC) ruling turning down the opposition bet's claim as the official standard-bearer of the Lakas ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP).
"We have prepared for that contingency. We have organized retired AFP, PNP personnel, 2,000 lawyers and paralegals, volunteers and from other concerned groups to guard the vote."
"We have sent tally sheets, statement of votes, together with poll watchers' identification cards and appointments to the printers," a lawyer in Lacson's team said Thursday.
Former Justice Sec. Artemio Tuquero, a key member of Lacson's legal counsel, was still in the US Thursday.
The SC last Wednesday dismissed with finality Lacson's motion for reconsideration and upheld its Feb. 24 ruling in favor of Sen. Edgardo Angara's bloc of the LDP, which endorses Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) presidential bet Fernando Poe Jr. as standard-bearer.
In a one-page resolution, the SC en banc said it threw out the appeal "as the basic issues raised therein have been passed upon by this court and no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal of the questioned decision."
Lacson's bloc, led by Makati Rep. Agapito Aquino, asked the SC to reverse its ruling, recognizing only Angara's faction and authorizing only him to sign the nomination of candidates for the election in May. Benjamin B. Pulta/AFP
(April 30, 2004 issue)
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Police clash with campaigning NPAs