FPJ supporters threaten protest actions

Supporters of actor Fernando Poe Jr., or FPJ, have threatened to stage protests if the May elections are postponed and the neophyte politician is disqualified from the presidential race.

Lawyer Victorino Fornier filed a petition last Friday with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking Poe’s disqualification because he is allegedly not a Filipino citizen. Fornier claimed Poe’s father was a Spanish citizen while his mother was an American.

Poe backers suspect that the Arroyo administration is behind the petition and may be planning to delay the elections to prevent a Poe victory. They branded Fornier as an "administration minion."

Palace officials denied the charge while Fornier insisted he was acting on his own initiative to set the record straight.

"We will not allow this to happen. We will take the case before the Filipino people if they disqualify FPJ or subvert the will of the people," Manny Portes, head of the Freedom, Peace and Justice for Progress Movement (FPJPM), told reporters yesterday.

"Malacañang knows that FPJ is a sure win in the coming elections," he said.

Portes added they denounce the "scheme to delay the elections or a no-elections scenario as part of the cheating scheme of the administration."

Poe is seen as President Arroyo’s major stumbling block to her bid for a full six-year term because of his immense popularity. But his lack of political experience has rattled the financial markets and the business community.

Mrs. Arroyo replaced Joseph Estrada, who was toppled in January 2001 by a military-backed popular protest following allegations of massive corruption.

If Poe is disqualified, his wife, actress Susan Roces, could run in her husband’s stead the same way former President Corazon Aquino, widow of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., challenged the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1986 elections, opposition senatorial candidate Ernesto Maceda said.

However, the May presidential race has been put into doubt because of legal questions on a contract between the Comelec and a company that provided the nearly 2,000 automated counting machines that will be used for tabulating ballots.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the contract soon.

Retired police chief Roberto Calinisan, who heads the Alliance of Generals for Poe and Loren (AGPoe), warned the government is "courting disaster" if the elections do not push through.

"The military is restless. It’s an empty leadership if they cannot decide on when to hold the elections," Calinisan said.

"Our republic is founded on the sacred democratic principle of universal suffrage for all citizens," opposition senatorial candidate Amina Rasul said in a statement. "There is no alternative to the May 2004 elections, for without elections, our society, our institutions would lose the very foundations of their existence."

The Comelec said it will revert to the old, tedious manual counting of ballots if the Supreme Court hands down an adverse ruling.

However, some lawmakers said there might not be enough time to prepare and hold the polls as scheduled.

Expecting an adverse ruling, Tarlac Rep. Jesli Lapuz, of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, filed a bill yesterday seeking a postponement of the elections.

"The Comelec should be given time to make the necessary adjustments to ensure the orderly conduct of the elections," he said, adding that his bill is a "standby" measure.

Lapuz, head of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, said election experts have warned that the Comelec would need at least 120 days to prepare for a manual counting of ballots.

While the Constitution has set the national and local elections on the second Monday of May, the same can be changed through an enabling law passed by Congress, Lapuz said.

He added the Comelec has the power to move election dates.

Other lawmakers and legal experts, however, argue that a mere law cannot effectively amend a constitutional provision.

The President yesterday said the May 10 polls will push through as scheduled, adding that Comelec has "affirmed its preparedness for any scenario and we are ready to implement the directives of the electoral body."

"I disagree with any plan to defer or postpone the elections," Mrs. Arroyo said in a brief statement issued by Malacañang. "The holding of elections as scheduled is important to our political and economic stability because we need the people’s mandate to act on fundamental issues facing our nation."

Speaker Jose de Venecia said the ruling majority in the House would oppose any move to postpone the elections.

Starting with the May polls, the country will finally do away with the manual counting of ballots, a slow process that took weeks to complete and left opportunities to manipulate the results.

Officials expect the automation to speed up the counting and minimize, if not eliminate, fraud.

Critics, however, warn that the polls might be headed for disaster, citing flaws in the computer system. Some of the ballot counting machines failed in trials and the system might be vulnerable to manipulation, they say.

Citing flaws in the automation process, Congress passed a bicameral resolution limiting the use of automated counting machines to select regions and provinces.

The Comelec opposes the resolution, arguing it would cause delays in preparing for the elections.

Unless the President vetoed it, officials earlier said the resolution would lapse into law if Mrs. Arroyo did not sign it 30 days after it has been transmitted to Malacañang for signature. The Palace received the resolution on Dec. 11.

But now Malacañang and even lawmakers are not certain if that is the case.

"That is something for legal experts to determine what would be the effect because it’s very clear, as far as ordinary bills are concerned, the effect of a non-action will automatically be deemed approved," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said. "But as to whether this would have the same effect if what is presented is a joint resolution, we don’t really know."

Bunye said Mrs. Arroyo would rather wait for the Supreme Court to rule on the fate of the elections before making any decision.