Drilon denies vote-shaving accusation

Senator Franklin Drilon on Monday denied that he asked former Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez to shave off votes from former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2004 elections. "I find that statement preposterous, I find it pathetic, I find it absurd. I have never been charged of participating in any vote-shaving," Drilon said in an interview on ANC News Channel Monday. The office of Drilon gave GMA News Online a transcript of the interview. He issued the statement in response to Gonzalez's accusation that Drilon asked him to reduce Mrs. Arroyo's one-million lead over the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. to only 800,000. "I think he’s so very wrong and I think he’s lying through his teeth," Drilon said in the same interview. "I have never talked to him about reducing votes. I have no control in the canvassing board. He was there. I have no control with what they were doing. All that I did was to receive the report of the canvassers led by and co-chaired by (him)," he added. Drilon and Gonzalez were both on the 2004 national board of canvassers, with the former as Senate president and the latter as House deputy speaker. Drilon, for his part, said he thinks that Gonzalez just wants to "muddle" the ongoing investigation on the alleged poll fraud in 2004. "I could not see his point. And why only now? I have been opposing GMA since 2005. After six years, he comes out with this when all these issues about the Batasan being raided, suddenly he comes out with this. It’s really a puzzle... what’s the point in all of these? I cannot understand," he said. Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Tito III, who was Poe's campaign manager, accused the 2004 national board of canvassers of being involved in a cover-up of alleged fraud when they refused to confirm the authenticity of contested election returns. In a separate interview on Monday, however, Drilon also denied the accusation and said that his actions against Mrs. Arroyo can speak for themself. Based on the official tally by 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 contested Mrs. Arroyo's victory, saying he was cheated. He died on Dec. 14, 2004 but his widow, Susan Roces, pursued the electoral protest against Mrs. Arroyo. In March 2005, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) dismissed the protest. - Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News