Palace welcomes SC ruling on canvass

Malacañang hailed yesterday the Supreme Court decision that paved the way for Congress to proceed with the official proclamation of President Arroyo and her running mate Sen. Noli de Castro as the winners of the May 10 vote.

With the legal questions over the congressional canvass finally settled, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said administration lawmakers dominating Congress would exert "ample control" to ensure healthy plenary debates on the official report of the 22-man joint canvassing committee without delay.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the petition of opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. questioning the legality of the joint congressional committee that tabulated the votes for president and vice president after Congress adjourned sine die on June 11.

The high court said Pimentel’s petition lacked any constitutional basis.

"With the decision of the Supreme Court, we have hurdled the last obstacle in the last mile of the democratic process," Bunye said.

"We must yield both to the people’s and to the judicial mandate," he said.

Bunye expressed Malacañang’s confidence that Mrs. Arroyo’s partymates and allies would not allow the electoral process to be stalled anew by the dilatory tactics of the opposition.

"The administration has ample control over Congress to see to it that it substantially meets its constitutional mandate on time," Bunye vowed.

This was after opposition lawmakers led by Pimentel insisted on presenting their "minority report" before the plenary stating their observations that Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) standard-bearer Fernando Poe Jr. and running mate Sen. Loren Legarda were victims of massive cheating in the May 10 elections.

"We expect a strong debate in Congress and we welcome it," Bunye said.

"The opposition should be given a chance to ventilate its minority report and the people must be informed of it," he said.

Bunye though reaffirmed the President’s call for "unity and reconciliation" to the opposition.

"The times call for all the people to gather around these principles (of unity) as we face the tough time ahead," Bunye said.

Deputy presidential spokesman Ricardo Saludo, for his part, called on the public against being misled by the opposition in their claims of rampant cheating and fraud in the May 10 vote.

Saludo cited there were some 300,000 "volunteers" from the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), more than 175 public school teachers, and thousands of other members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) and other civilians who helped out the Commission on Elections, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police ensure honest, peaceful and clean elections.

"But now some sectors are saying that all of these people were useless and were unable to stop the cheating during the elections. I think before we believe these claims, we must demand solid proof," Saludo said.

Saludo said it was unfortunate for the opposition to continue their allegations of fraud and discrediting of the whole electoral process.

"We hope that our people would not believe them but would continue to have faith in our process which a majority of our countrymen support," he said.

Saludo reiterated that the opposition should bring their allegations before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).