Pimentel said his recourse to this parliamentary tool, even if unpalatable to apologists of the administration, has begun to yield positive results with the move of the leadership of the Joint Canvassing Committee to grant the opposition’s demand to require all Certificates of Canvass (CoCs) to be accompanied by Statements of Votes (SoVs) pursuant to election laws.
He decried that some of his detractors, after desperately failing to find anything illegal or unparliamentary in his fight against tyranny of numbers, have raised irrelevant and pointless matters to discredit him.
The opposition senator said he is taking pains to see to it that Congress discharges its tasks of appreciating and canvassing the votes for the presidency and vice-presidency without suppressing the truth and without disregarding documented fraud.
He stressed that if Congress will proclaim the winning presidential candidate, his or her victory should be bereft of doubts, "lest the government will be in a constant state of instability."
Pimentel expressed appreciation for the gesture of House Deputy Speaker Raul Gonzales and Sen. Francis Pangilinan, co-chairmen of the Joint Canvassing Committee, for granting the opposition’s motion to make available the SoVs for Aurora when it was found out that the provincial CoC was not accompanied by the SoVs during the session on Wednesday.
"After a little argument, they gave way and the SoVs were put on the table for us to have access to. Therefore, we are happy with that and the ruling that any missing electoral paper that needs to be produced will be produced and will be canvassed later if necessary."
He said this was a good way of smoothing out the differences between the administration and the opposition that could only hasten the canvassing process. He said had the majority taken a hardline position against granting the opposition’s motion, he would have spoken at length to overcome it.
Subsequently, Pimentel said, the missing SoVs for Biliran and Camiguin were also made available upon the opposition’s request. He said the majority gave their explanation why the SoVs were initially not there.
"That is all we want from them – to explain their inability to produce some documents and if their explanation is good, we will go along with the explanation."
Four SC justices
Four Supreme Court justices support the opening of the Election Returns (ERs) and Statement of Votes (SoVs) in cases of questioned Certificates of Canvass (CoCs) in the canvassing of votes for president and vice-president by the 22-member Joint Committee of Congress.
In an opinion separate from the unanimous decision upholding the constitutionality of the joint committee, Senior Justice Reynato Puno and Justices Angelina Sandoval Gutierrez, Romeo Callejo Sr. and Adolfo Azcuna said that "the search for the true will of the electorate should not be confined to the four corners of the certificates of canvass."
"The truth if blocked by the opaque face of the certificates of canvass must be extracted from the election returns and statement of votes," they said.
The separate opinion was written by Puno. They, together with 10 other justices led by Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., dismissed the petition challenging the constitutionality of the canvass of votes by the Joint Committee.
The four justices said that the determination of the authenticity and due execution of the CoCs should not be done in a "robotic manner" since the primary consideration is accuracy.
Lawyer Rufus Rodriguez of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) said he hoped that the opinion of the four justices "would have persuasive effect" on the lawmakers now conducting the canvass. (Rey Panaligan)
KNP hits administration on martial law scenario
The Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino yesterday assailed the administration for threatening to declare martial law if there is no proclamation of the winning presidential and vice-presidential candidates by Congress before June 30.
Opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said that the "no-proclamation scenario being touted by the administration is a tactic to give it an excuse to declare martial law."
A freedom fighter who was jailed during the Marcos dictatorship, Pimentel recalled that then President Marcos used the excuse that the political opposition was "destabilizing" the government to declare martial law in 1972. Marcos also raised the "Communist threat" as an additional excuse for his dictatorial coup, another tactic employed by the present administration.
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, another anti-Marcos activist, said that "all the signs of an impending crackdown on human rights and civil liberties that were present just before the onset of the Marcos dictatorship appear to be present under the Arroyo administration."
Both Pimentel and Binay alerted the citizenry to be vigilant to guard their civil liberties.
The KNP and its leaders issued the statements after National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said on television that "martial law may be the solution in case of a no-proclamation scenario on June 30.
In a statement, the KNP said "if there is any delay in the canvassing of the votes, it is the administration that is to be blamed because of its efforts to muzzle the opposition in Congress. If the Congress leadership would only allow the opposition to properly question the certificates of canvass in accordance with the Constitution and the laws, there would be no delay in the canvassing."
