To bow to sovereign will if he loses the Congress canvassErap won’t concede on unofficial vote countBy Gerry Baldo 05/12/2010 Not so fast. Not on the poll body’s count. Former President Joseph Estrada, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard bearer, yesterday said that he is not conceding to Liberal Party (LP) presidential bet Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, making it clear that his silence on the election should not lead people to think that he is conceding defeat, stressing that it is wrong for him to concede on the basis of mere transmitted election returns coming from unidentified precincts. “Lest my silence following the recent presidential elections be misconstrued as conceding the elections to the frontrunner, I wish to assure the public that while I plan no protests, I am not conceding,” Estrada said in a statement, which was read by his son and a certain senatorial winner, Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada. He read the statement of his father over ANC, the cable network yesterday afternoon. The statement said: “I wish to remind the people that under our Constitution, only Congress, not the Commission on Elections or its chairman, Jose Melo, and certainly not the so-called poll watchdogs, can proclaim the winner of the presidential elections,” Estrada said. Estrada was apparently speaking about an alleged trending that makes it appear that Aquino had already won the elections, as poll watchdog Parish Pastoral Council on Responsible Voting and the Comelec itself have been releasing precinct count transmitted results, with PPCRV passed off a an “unofficial” partial count, while the Comelec released numbers, also based on transmitted election returns, are passed off as the “official” partial Comelec count without, however, identifying from where these numbers come, which could well result in a trending of unofficial vote count....MORE |
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100512hed1.html