Koko’s unreachable dream BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 07/18/2010

Koko’s unreachable dream

BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 07/18/2010 Lawyer Aquilino Pimentel III must be ruing his decision not to run in the senatorial elections last May, which were topped by re-electionists (only due to their being movie stars in this showbiz-crazed country of ours) Ramon “Bong” Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada, bragging he was confident of winning the protest he had filed in June 2007 against rival Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri. Because if only he had opted to cast his lot with the opposition in the May 10, 2010 polls, instead of his political neophyte sister Gwen, he would most probably be one of those senators awaiting the opening of Congress in two weeks to formally assume their places in the upper chamber Pimentel, son of former Senate Minority Leader Nene Pimentel of Cagayan de Oro City, it should be recalled, was edged out by a mere few thousand votes by former Arroyo ally Zubiri for the 12th and final slot in the winner’s circle in the senatorial race during the May 2007 polls, despite having led throughout the counting of votes conducted by the Commission of Elections that was acting as the national board of canvassers. Pimentel saw the ever so slim lead of less than 20,000 votes he had maintained over 13th placer Zubiri (a la Jojo Binay vis-a-vis his struggle with Mar Roxas) in the tabulations suddenly dissipate after the Supreme Court allowed the Comelec to include the ballots from Maguindanao province, a known administration bailiwick, in their canvassing. By then, the proclamation of the last-placed senator had been dragging on for some two agonizing months because Pimentel, a Bar topnotcher, had petitioned the tribunal to stop the Comelec from counting the votes from Maguindanao province where he alleged wholesale and massive fraud had taken place.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100718com4.html

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