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Loren case didn’t settle GMA legitimacy

ZOOMING IN

Rudy Romero

08/06/2008

Ibelieve that the issue of Gloria Arroyo’s being a legitimate president remains unsettled to this day. I also believe that the Supreme Court decision in the protest filed by the Kilusan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda against Noli de Castro did not resolve the issue of whether GMA cheated her way to victory against KNP standard bearer Fernando Poe Jr.

Because he is Mrs. Arroyo’s counsel on electoral matters, Romulo Macalintal cannot be expected to embrace the above beliefs. In fact, he believes their exact opposites. He believes that Gloria Arroyo is the duly elected president of the Philippines, and he believes that the Supreme Court decision discussing Sen. Loren Legarda’s protest confirmed GMA’s election.

Macalintal was presented two weeks ago with an opportunity to sound off anew on the issue of his No. 1 client’s legitimacy. The opportunity was the presentation by the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO) on the day preceding Ms. Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (Sona), of “The Real State of the Nation.”

The FSGO paper spoke of a stolen republic, not the Strong Republic that GMA propagandists are programmed to speak of, and of “seven curses” that she has placed on this country.

“The claim of an illegitimate (GMA) presidency is without basis in law and in fact,” Macalintal declared in answer to the FSGO’s stolen-republic charge. “The ultimate end to the issue was finally nailed when the Supreme Court dismissed Sen. Loren Legarda’s protest... where not a single ballot had been shown to prove that a vote for Fernando Poe Jr. was counted for President Arroyo.”

Addressing the former senior government officials directly, Romulo Macalintal went on saying: “Since the ultimate end had been handed down by the Supreme Court, it cannot be said that PGMA stole the republic, for the Supreme Court decision in Legarda (vs. De Castro), which is final and executory, affirmed and strengthened her legitimacy.”

When I first read the reports of his talk with the newsmen about the FSGO paper, I was shocked. Were those really the words of a well-trained, highly experienced and sophisticated legal practitioner, I asked myself. How, I thought, could a veteran lawyer like Romulo Macalintal be caught saying things like these?

But, sure enough, it was really GMA’s electoral-matters adviser who had been quoted by the press. Thereafter, Macalintal was not heard to complain that he had been misquoted.

How on earth could Romulo Macalintal declare in all seriousness and without batting an eyelash that “the ultimate end to the (GMA legitimacy) issue was finally nailed when the Supreme Court dismissed Senator Legarda’s protest” when (1) Loren Legarda’s protest was dismissed by the High Court on the basis that her candidacy for the Senate amounted to abandonment of her protest and (2) not nearly all of the election returns contested by Loren Legarda had been recanvassed at the time she launched her candidacy for the Senate? Macalintal could have properly spoken of a final nailing of the (GMA legitimacy) issue if Senator Legarda had pursued her protest to the end and all the votes she contested had all been counted.

And how on earth could Romulo Macalintal say with all bravado that “not a single ballot had been shown to prove that a vote for Fernando Poe Jr. was counted for President Arroyo” when the case being heard was Legarda versus De Castro and the recanvassers were looking at the votes cast for Loren Legarda and Noli de Castro and not at those cast for Ms. Arroyo and FPJ?

Macalintal’s statement has left me dumbfounded. I am certain it has led the same effect even on law-school students poring over the Rules of the Court provisions on parties in litigation.

No, Sir Romulo Macalintal, the issue of Gloria Arroyo’s stealing of the presidency has by no means been settled, and the Supreme Court decision in Loren Legarda’s protest did nothing to resolve the issue.

The wound left for the “Hello Garci” conversations, the Cebu capers and all the other irregularities that attended the conduct of the 2004 elections has not been closed.

(My e-mail address is rudy_v_romero@yahoo.com)