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Monday, May 24, 2004
Be calm, Vidal tells Arroyo, Poe allies
CEBU CITY -- Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal urged supporters of the administration and the opposition to "be calm" and "not resort to violence" while waiting for the official results of the May 10 elections.
Representatives of presidential candidates Fernando Poe Jr. and Bro. Eddie Villanueva had approached the prelate to report poll fraud allegedly committed by the administration. Vidal asked them to present documented evidence, which he could give to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Although it was reported that Poe's camp already submitted evidence to Vidal, the prelate, who said he has been very busy lately, could not confirm it.
He just hoped that the results of the polls will be known soon.
"In fairness to all, let's just wait until the tabulations are over. I'm not somebody who wants to preempt it. After all, they are all intelligent people," he told reporters in an interview after he said mass during the feast of St. Joseph in Mabolo, Cebu City Sunday.
Arroyo's allies, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north) and Coconut Farmers Federation of the Philippines (Cocofed) party-list nominee Emerito Calderon denied allegations from Poe's camp that Cebu was one of the centers of cheating in favor of Arroyo.
President Arroyo got 220,060 votes over Poe's 58,591 in Cebu City alone.
Asked what he will do if the opposition camps prove fraud even if Arroyo's allies refute the accusations, Vidal said he is not in the position to make any judgment on the matter.
"Why do I have to judge them? We're all free. They can do whatever they like. We are a democracy and this is a free country," he said.
Last week, Vidal, who is a close friend of Poe's ally former president Joseph Estrada, called for unity after the elections.
He also denied reports that a quarrel due to political alliances threatened to break apart the CBCP.
He said that he has left it to Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales to handle the affairs of the Coalition for Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections, a group the bishops formed, since he no longer has time for it.
So far, other than claims of vote buying in Cebu City, Poe's supporters don't know how else the move actor was cheated in Cebu.
Local candidates of Poe's Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) said they will just leave it to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to determine who really won in the May 10 polls.
While they accept Poe's defeat in Cebu City and Cebu Province, Edward Ligas, who ran for Cebu City Councilor under KNP, said they believe that Poe was cheated here.
He said that they already gathered evidence from two individuals who claimed to have received P1,000 bills from President Arroyo's local supporters before the elections.
Ligas said they sent the affidavits and copies of allegedly padded election returns to Comelec Manila, which they may use as evidence against President Arroyo's camp.
"As far as Cebu is concerned, we have two items of evidence that there was fraud in Cebu City in favor of President Arroyo. The process of vote-buying was very clear to us," he told Sun.Star.
Despite the alleged fraud, Ligas said they are still confident that Poe will win against Arroyo with a lead of some 1.2 million votes.
Poe's supporters earlier said that massive election fraud in favor of Arroyo occurred in Cebu City and Cebu Province.
But local administration candidates led by Mayor Osmeña denied this, saying that Poe's lack of campaign funds and his failure to woo the voters caused his defeat in Cebu.
Ligas also accused the Comelec and National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) of conniving to make Arroyo win.
"There is no doubt that Comelec and Namfrel connived to manipulate the results of the elections, to create trending and condition the minds of the electorate that Arroyo is leading," he said.
One of the evidence that Ligas' group gathered was an affidavit of radio blocktimer Joefrey Quiñones, who alleged that he received a fake P1,000 bill from five men who asked him to vote for all K4 and Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) candidates.
He claimed that a P1,000 bill and a BO-PK sample ballot was placed inside a yellow card and was delivered to his house last May 9.
But when he tried to pay a department store using the bill, he was told that it was fake.
Quiñones will be one of the witnesses in the complaints of "massive vote-buying" against Arroyo.
Another witness will be a teacher who served as chairman of the board of election inspectors in a Cebu City poll precinct, who claimed to have received a letter signed by Osmeña.
Ligas said the letter contained statements discrediting KNP Cebu City mayoralty candidate Alvin Garcia. A genuine P1,000 bill was also attached to it. CYR/LCR
(May 24, 2004 issue)
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Arroyo aide: Opposition spreading 'lies'