Legarda insists she won in the 2004 elections

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Loren Legarda insisted  on Monday  that  she was the real winner  in  the  2004 vice presidential elections as she sought  “absolute  closure” into allegations of  massive cheating  during the  2004 elections.

Legarda had filed an election protest before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal but her case had been dismissed when she ran and won in the 2007 senatorial race.

“The ghosts of the 2004 elections are once again haunting us because there was no absolute closure in as far as the protest I filed before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal,” she said in a statement.

“This is something I fought for from 2004 to 2007, three long painful years.  I and my lawyers presented our own pieces of evidence.  The truth has been staring us in the face since 2004.  The fraud is clear,” she said.

And even though she was sure that she and the late actor, Fernando Poe Jr. were winners in that election, Legarda said they could not do anything because of the “very tedious process” of an electoral protest before the PET. The senator was Poe’s running mate in the 2004 elections.

Legarda lamented that even if she was then advancing the true will of the electorate, she was ridiculed as ambitious and a sore loser.  She said she was advocating a lonely crusade against an illegitimate government.

“Paano ka makakapag-silbi ng tapat sa taong bayan bilang Presidente o Bise-Presidente kung ang ginagamit mong basehan sa iyong Pag-proklama ay mga pekeng ER. Para mong sinabing college graduate ka ngunit ang diploma mo ay peke [How can you serve the people honestly as a President or Vice-President if you base your proclamation on fake ERs (election returns). That is like saying you are a college graduate when your diploma is a fake],” she said.

Legarda then supported moves to re-investigate the alleged massive cheating.

“Karapatan ng bawa’t Pilipino na malaman ang katotohanan noong 2004 elections, at kailangan mabigyang linaw ang mga pangyayari upang maiwasan natin ito sa mga susunod na eleksyon [It is every Filipino’s right to know the truth about the 2004 elections, and it is essential to reveal what happened then so it can be prevented in the next election],” she added.