KNP lawyers who walked out say they’re willing to go to jail

Two former lawyers of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) expressed willingness yesterday to go to jail if the government pushes through with what they described as "trumped-up criminal charges" designed to cover up alleged anomalies in the May 10 elections.

"We are ready to go to jail," Rufus Rodriguez said. He and Harriet Demetriou represented KNP standard-bearer Fernando Poe Jr. and his running mate Sen. Loren Legarda in the congressional canvass until they resigned Friday night and walked out of the proceedings.

The two lawyers — along with their former colleagues Sixto Brillantes, Eduardo Escueta, Avelino "Ave" Cruz, and Raul Lambino — called a press conference yesterday to denounce the alleged political persecution being carried out by the Arroyo administration.

Demetriou said the harassment by the government is an indication that an "undeclared martial law" is now being imposed on Filipinos.

Tipo-Tipo, Basilan municipal election officer Radja Rashma Hali and her daughter Fherdaoisa accused Demetriou and Rodriguez of detaining them for 10 days and forcing the elder Hali to sign a prepared statement alleging she was witness to massive fraud being committed in Basilan.

But Demetriou said Hali was in fact a voluntary witness who came all the way from Basilan to surrender a "doctored" election return. She said Hali, fearing for her life, sought her assistance and executed an affidavit before Makati City assistant fiscal Edgardo Hirang.

"We have a video tape of all our meetings," she said.

Demetriou said the election return given by Hali revealed that Poe lost over 7,000 votes in Tipo-Tipo town through the "dagdag-bawas" (vote-padding and shaving) scheme.

Demetriou also said the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group violated her right to due process when they filed charges with the Department of Justice (DOJ) without making a prior investigation.

"It took (police) one year to file charges against suspects in the Nida Blanca killing but it took them only hours to file criminal charges before the DOJ," she said.

Rodriguez warned that the canvassing of votes for president and vice president, which continued despite the absence of KNP lawyers, violated the rights of Poe and Legarda to avail themselves of the services of other lawyers.

He hinted that they would again elevate the matter to Supreme Court because the continuation of the canvass constitutes a "grave abuse of discretion resulting in lack of jurisdiction over the case."

"The canvassing is illegal so any proclamation would be a bogus proclamation," Rodriguez said.

At the same time, Legarda accused President Arroyo’s political operators of undertaking systematic electoral fraud to enable Mrs. Arroyo to hold on to power.

Legarda, in an interview with United States-based Cable News Network, said a political firestorm is now brewing in the country as a result of the massive cheating in the May 10 elections.

"The last time Congress railroaded a canvass, and this was in 1986, a people power revolution shook us and the rest of the world," she said.

Legarda earlier called on international media to report the cheating that attended the last elections and the "railroading" by Congress of the canvassing of votes for president and vice president.

She said the administration-controlled 22-man joint canvass committee is determined to proclaim Mrs. Arroyo and her running mate, Sen. Noli de Castro, as winners even in the face of overwhelming evidence that their opponents won.

Legarda said administration lawmakers are thwarting efforts by their opposition counterparts to look into electoral documents at the precinct and municipal levels since these would prove that massive fraud had indeed been committed.

She also earlier told the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong that the Arroyo administration blatantly misused public funds to "curry favor" among voters.

Legarda cited that among the specific cases of cheating undertaken by the Arroyo administration’s political operators include the manufacturing of election returns from 11 towns in Maguindanao where no elections had been held.

‘Desperation’

Administration lawmakers, however, said the opposition lawyers’ walkout Friday night showed lack their of professionalism and desperation from having run out of valid objections to the certificates of canvass.

"The opposition counsels were obviously playing to the gallery with their theatrics and abandoning of English in favor of Filipino, to the detriment of (lawmakers who do not speak the Tagalog dialect). There was evident bad faith in their participation in the tabulation proceedings," Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles said.

He added that Rodriguez and Demetriou should have answered the charges filed against them and not used the case "to justify their walkout."

Bulacan Rep. Wilfrido Villarama said Brillantes also walked out though his name was not included in the charge sheet.

"It remains a big question why he opted to abandon his duty rather than continue to protect the interest of their opposition clients. That was being unprofessional," he said. — With Jose Rodel Clapano