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There Are Principles More Important Than A Senate Seat

The recent massacre of unarmed and innocent civilians in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao has made us realize the importance of Justice in Philippine society. Although Justice will not bring the Ampatuan massacre victims back to life, we should give them Justice so that their supreme sacrifice in the name of democracy and press freedom will not be in vain. The guilty must be taught a lesson. The guilty must be punished.

It is this same quest for Justice which has made me decide not to run for Senator in the May 2010 elections, notwithstanding my high survey ratings and favorable endorsements from friends and even from strangers, but to concentrate instead on my pending election protest against Migz Zubiri.

We should never forget the electoral fraud perpetrated in Maguindanao in 2007.

I filed my protest, Pimentel versus Zubiri, before the Senate Electoral Tribunal in July 2007 (docketed as SET Case No. 001-07). It is a protest intended to be finished and won, in order to correct this injustice committed not against me, but against the Filipino People. I am simply the face of a victim, but the real victims are all of us Filipinos.

The limited number of protested precincts (only 2,658 precincts) is already indicative of my desire to pursue the protest to its logical and just conclusion. The final memorandum for the protest has been filed last year, in November 2008. Then how come the case has not been decided even up to this time? It is because the counter-protest of the candidate proclaimed by the Abalos-led Comelec covers 73,000 precincts, around one-third of the entire country. The counter-protest is therefore 28 times larger than my protest. Obviously, my opponent’s manifest intention is simply to delay the resolution of the proceedings.

Nevertheless, there have been positive developments in the case. For one, the ballot boxes from Maguindanao have all been opened in the SET. In the four municipalities of Maguindanao, which I have designated as my pilot precincts, the Senate Electoral Tribunal has officially found the following:

(SOURCE: SET RESOLUTION NO. 07-27 DATED 17 JUNE 2008.)

Zubiri led me by only 19,292 votes at the time of his proclamation by Abalos et al.

Moreover, since the SET is about to wrap up proceedings in the counter-protest’s pilot precincts, I am hopeful that a decision in this case will be rendered by the SET soon.

I thank the Filipino People for their continued support to my struggle as reflected in the surveys where I have been receiving the highest voting preference rating for a non-incumbent, private person like me. I will finish my protest and I ask for your help by praying for the attainment of Justice in this case.

Our upcoming young politicians must be shown that there are some principles in life, like Justice, which are more important than an almost assured Senate seat. My giving up the opportunity to run for the Senate in 2010, and get a full six-year term, is but a small price to pay for the principle that our people, as well as the generations of Filipinos still to come, are entitled to free, honest and clean elections. Moreover, if someone did not win an election, then he should not be allowed to finish a term which is not his in the first place.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat sa inyong patuloy na suporta!

*pleadings and evidence in the protest are available here in this website.