Comelec Chief says FPJ won 2004 elections

Commission on Elections chair and lawyer Sixto Brillantes Jr. remains a firm believer that the late Fernando Poe Jr. won the controversial 2004 presidential elections over Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, reports GMA News. Brillantes issued this statement after Sen. Chiz Escudero filed on Tuesday, July 18, a resolution to investigate the alleged anomalies of the said elections.

In 2004, Arroyo was declared victorious after receiving 12,905,808 votes over Poe's 11,782,232. After electoral protests from the latter's camp were dismissed, a taped conversation between Arroyo and ex-Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano ("Hello Garci" scandal) discussing an alleged vote-rigging surfaced in 2005. Both Arroyo and Garcillano denied tampering with the results of the election.

While Brillantes does not have evidence to prove that Poe was cheated, the Comelec chair is staunch in his conviction. "Si Fernando Poe Jr. ang nanalo. Alam ko, ako ang abogado ni Fernando Poe... pinaglaban ko nang husto yan (Fernando Poe was the true winner of the 2004 elections. I should know. I was his lawyer and I defended him)," he said.

In a television interview on Tuesday, however, Brillantes admitted that even if they managed to prove the fraud, Comelec will be unable to overturn the proclamations since Arroyo's term is over and Poe died in 2004. "It's just a matter of determining (who really won) for historial purposes or for posterity," he said. Poe's daughter echoed the same sentiments. "Para sa akin actually, magkaroon lang ng footnote, ng asterisk sa mga nilalathalang history books na okay, (Gloria Arroyo) ang umupong Pangulo pero (may) asterisk na siya ay nahatulan for fraud and cheating (I'm okay with having history books that contain footnotes saying that Gloria Arroyo may have become president but she was also charged with fraud and cheating)," said Grace Poe-Llamanzares.

Source: spot.ph

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