LP: Aquino administration will fight all forms of poll cheating

In this July 2015 photo, President Benigno Aquino III raises the hand of then Interior Secretary Mar Roxas during “A Gathering of Friends” at Cory C. Aquino Kalayaan Hall, Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City. The President has chosen Roxas to be his successor. INQUIRER PHOTO

The ruling Liberal Party (LP) has assured the public that the current administration will fight all forms of cheating in the elections, especially since the mother of President Benigno Aquino III, Cory Aquino, was herself a victim of the “biggest electoral fraud in the country’s history.”

The administration coalition spokesperson and Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez said Aquino should be the last person to be dragged into the allegations of poll cheating to favor his anointed presidential candidate, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

“It is not right to drag the President’s name through the mud with all these allegations of cheating because his own mother got cheated in the biggest electoral fraud in our country’s history. Let’s all keep in mind that election fraud was the spark that started people power,” Gutierrez said.

Despite the endorsement from the President, Roxas is still faring poorly in preference surveys and continues to be behind Vice President Jejomar Binay and Sen. Grace Poe.

This was after former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was sighted in the same hotel as Binay and Poe on the day of the first presidential debate organized by the Commission on Elections, GMA 7 and Inquirer in Cagayan de Oro City over the weekend.

The lawyer, who was embroiled in the “Hello Garci” scandal or the alleged rigging of the 2004 elections in favor of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was seen greeting several people in the lobby of Seda Centrio Hotel last Sunday hours before the debate.

Both Poe and Binay denied their reported ties with Garcillano.

Roxas was also present in the Mindanaoan city but he was billeted at Limketkai Luxe Hotel, same with Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

“It is indeed scary to think of cheating at the polls, especially since Garcillano was seen in CDO at the hotel where Senator Poe and VP Binay were staying. Operators notorious for rigging elections are coming out of the woodwork. We don’t need to name these people and who they work for,” Gutierrez said.

“Let’s remember that Mar (Roxas) got cheated in 2010,” he said.

After the 2010 national elections, Roxas filed an electoral protest against Binay, who won the vice president post with a 700,000 lead.

The LP standard-bearer claimed two million votes for the position of vice president had been rendered null and all of them were from Visayas.

Vice President Jejomar Binay won the elections with more than 727,000 lead. RC

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