Press Release
May 5, 2010



Liberal Party (LP) national chairman and senatorial candidate Franklin Drilon today said that the suggestion of President Arroyo’s election lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, to postpone the May 10 polls was irresponsible and will only result in exposing the country to fraud and future electoral manipulations.

“The country is already on tenterhooks with regards to this coming Monday’s election. The Liberal Party is against Romulo Macalintal’s suggestion to defer the elections, because we believe that postponement will only set a bad precedent in this country, and at the same time, expose us to massive cheating,” Drilon said.

According to Macalintal, the Omnibus Election Code allows for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc to reset the polls “based on serious cause like the apparent failure of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to properly and correctly function.”

“If we postpone the elections on May 10, then we can postpone it until June 10, even until July 10, and this we cannot allow. People are already worried about the elections, and postponing it will only create more reasons for people to go to the streets and protest,” Drilon explained.

“I agree with Macalintal when he said that in the absence or failure of a computerized count, we can, and should, revert to manual counting, but regardless of how we count the votes, elections must push through on May 10,” Drilon insisted.

Drilon said he believed that Comelec was doing everything to ensure that elections take place this coming Monday.

“Comelec should understand that people’s faith in our democracy rests on their (Comelec) shoulders,” Drilon said, adding, “I do not think Comelec will allow such a historic occasion to be sabotaged just because PCOS machines might fail.”

“No matter what everyone else say, elections must push through on Monday, because to do so would only strengthen people’s growing distrust in our system of government,” Drilon warned.