Zubiri resigns; Palace ‘blackmail’ rap aired By Angie M. Rosales 08/04/2011

SOURCES POINT TO LLAMAS’ PRESSURE, THREATS; JPE LAUDS MIGZ FOR ‘MORAL COURAGE’

Zubiri resigns; Palace ‘blackmail’ rap aired

By Angie M. Rosales 08/04/2011

Just a month before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) is slated to come to an end on his counter-protest case against lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel in a recount of the contested votes during the 2007 elections, Sen. Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri announced his resignation from the Senate membership.Zubiri’s decision to give up his elected position, whose legitimacy he continues to be defending for four years now, was prompted by renewed charges of supposed cheating in the elections following the recent surfacing of purported new witnesses in massive poll fraud operations.

Zubiri, in a class act of resigning, said he is doing so to defend his, and his family’s honor and integrity, as power and position and even money cannot be more important than integrity and honor.

The surfacing of the former Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and former election officer Lintang Bedol, apparently aggravated Zubiri’s predicament as Tribune sources disclosed that Zubiri was being subjected to intense pressure as well as threats from Malacañang for quite sometime now, dating back when he was strongly opposing the Palace-backed bill postponing the elections in the ARMM..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110804hed1.html