Comelec chief Brillantes: FPJ won 2004 polls

Seven years later and now occupying the top post at the Commission on Elections, lawyer Sixto Brillantes Jr. still believes the late Fernando Poe Jr. won the 2004 presidential elections over Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. "Si Fernando Poe Jr. [ang nanalo] Alam ko, ako ang abogado ni Fernando Poe... pinaglaban ko nang husto yan (Fernando Poe was the real winner during the 2004 elections. I should know. I was his lawyer. I fought for his victory)," Brillantes said at a news briefing in Manila. He issued the statement after Senator Francis Escudero filed a Joint Resolution No. 11 asking both chambers of Congress to create the fact-finding commission that would look into the alleged anomalies during the controversial 2004 presidential elections. Even as he admitted that he does not have the evidence to prove that Poe was cheated, Brillantes maintained that his client won the controversial 2004 elections. "Bilang namin noon nanalo si Fernando Poe sigurado ako dun (In our count, Fernando Poe won, I am sure of that)," he said. Public interest Public interest in the alleged fraud in 2004 was revived after former Maguindanao elections supervisor Lintang Bedol, who is accused of rigging the 2007 senatorial elections in favor of allies of Mrs. Arroyo, was turned over to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Tuesday. Bedol is now detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame. But in a television interview on Tuesday, Brillantes said that even if Bedol admits to cheating in the 2004 elections, the current Comelec will not be able to annul the proclamations made. Brillantes explained that the term has already elapsed and results would prove moot since the aggrieved, Poe, has already passed away. "It’s just a matter of determining kung sino talaga ang nanalo for historical [purposes] or for posterity," he said. The same sentiment was echoed by the late actor's daughter and current Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chairperson Grace Poe-Llamanzares, who said: "Para sa akin actually, magkaroon lang ng footnote, ng asterisk sa mga nilalathalang history books na ‘okay, [si Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] ang umupong Pangulo pero asterisk, siya ay nahatulan for fraud and cheating." 2004 polls By official records of Congress sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, Mrs. Arroyo won the 2004 elections after garnering 12,905,808 votes over Poe's 11,782,232 votes. Poe claimed that Mrs. Arroyo had robbed him of his electoral victory. He died on Dec. 14, 2004 but his widow, Susan Roces, pursued an electoral protest. In March 2005, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) dismissed the protest. In June 2005, a taped conversation about alleged vote-rigging between a woman presumed to be Mrs. Arroyo and a man presumed to be ex-Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano surfaced. It became known as the “Hello Garci" controversy. Both Mrs. Arroyo and Garcillano have since denied being involved in the supposed rigging of the 2004 elections. — RSJ/KBK, GMA News