SC to Noli, Loren: Shut up on PET case

Enough talk about the electoral protest regarding the vice-presidential elections — the case is still in court.

The Supreme Court (SC), sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), warned Vice President Noli de Castro and former senator Loren Legarda yesterday against issuing any more statements that are sub judice and tend to influence proceedings on Legarda’s electoral protest against De Castro.

In a five-page resolution, the PET said De Castro and Legarda can both be cited for contempt if they do not stop issuing statements that could influence public opinion on the matter of Legarda’s poll protest.

The PET said that after the discovery of missing election returns during the retabulation it is conducting, Legarda then told the media that her claims of massive electoral fraud in the May 10 elections in 2004 were confirmed.

The PET said De Castro, for his part, has repeatedly been telling the public through the media that he did not cheat his way to the vice presidency.

"These statements appear as an attempt to influence the proceedings, convince the public of their version of facts and create bias, prejudice and sympathies," the PET said.

It said the retabulation of the election returns is not the end of the election protest, rather, it is "merely the first phase of the process and must still pass closer scrutiny by the tribunal."

The PET said the statements made by De Castro and Legarda were not duly established as facts by the tribunal and could be a basis for holding them in contempt of court.

"The great public interest at stake behooves the tribunal to exercise its power and render judgment free from public pressure and uninterrupted by the parties’ penchant for media mileage," the PET said.

It also ordered House of Representatives secretary general Roberto Nazareno and House deputy secretary general for operations Artemio Adasa Jr. to deliver within a non-extendible period of five days election returns from the six protested towns in Lanao del Sur, which were discovered to be missing from the ballot boxes opened during the retabulation conducted by the PET on Dec. 12, 2005.

The High Court also ordered Nazareno and Adasa to explain within five days why the election returns and other election documents used in the May 10, 2004 elections, which were turned over to the PET retrieval team, are incomplete compared to the total number of clustered precincts listed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for Lanao del Sur.

Meanwhile, acting clerk of court Ma. Luisa Villarama reported to the PET that the correction team has already retabulated four of the 10 protested towns in Lanao — Balindong, Masiu, Mulondo and Taraka.

Villarama said the election returns in the towns of Bacolod-Kalawi, Ganassi Kapai, Sultan Gumander, Tamparan and Wao were not found inside the ballot boxes collected from the House of Representatives.

She said the correction team found only those election returns from the municipalities that are not the subject of Legarda’s electoral protest against De Castro.

The High Court also ordered Nazareno and Adasa to submit a complete list of all election returns, provincial and district certificates of canvass and statements of votes and other election documents and paraphernalia used in the May 10, 2004 elections for the province of Lanao del Sur, which are in the custody of the House.