Palace hits Aquino for threatening power grab

PANGASINAN, Philippines - Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate Sen. Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino III warned of people power should the elections fail.

Ambushed at a sortie in Alaminos, Pangasinan, Aquino said, "Sovereignty resides in people. If they feel their will has been thwarted, I'm sure they will again regain sovereignty among themselves."

However, Aquino dismissed as premature questions on whether he himself will lead such a people power move.

"It's premature to call for people power. It's up to the Comelec whose responsibility is to run elections and to make the process meaningful, worthwhile and reflective," he said.

Aquino, meantime, appealed to the President not to cause instability, when he was asked what he thought of the alleged rift between Mrs. Arroyo and Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Jesus Verzosa, as well as all the talk of failure of elections.

"You should ask the president who delegated the PNP chief. I assume she chose from worthy candidates...Mahiya naman sila. After 9 and a half years, we can't even manage a peaceful election. Kung meron mang instability, buhay ng 100 milyon Pilipino ang pinaglalaruan dito. Di iyan chess piece," he said.

Aquino revealed that party lawyers will ask and reiterate with the Comelec on Wednesday their petitions to ensure the success of the automated elections, like the review of the source code for the automation machines.

Aquino noted that these petitions have remained unacted upon with just 6 weeks to go before the elections, even if they were first filed 6 months ago.

Reacting to Aquino's statement, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said: "I agree. People will not allow a failure of elections. If such a scenario happens, yellow, orange and red will be the colors at EDSA."

Opposition preparing for power grab?

Meanwhile, deputy Palace spokesman Gary Olivar accused opposition leaders of paving the way for a possible power grab in case they lose in the polls.

"It seems that Sen. Aquino has finally answered our question yesterday why the opposition keeps trying to scare our people with all their talk about election failure. Many of his leaders appear to have developed an unfortunate addiction to EDSA adventurism. It's no longer people power we're talking about here. It's nothing but a naked threat of power grab in case the voters turn them down at the polls," Olivar said.

He said the Filipino people "have grown tired of unconstitutional shortcuts no matter how well-intentioned," and that "our uniformed services will not look kindly on any new challenge to the chain of command and the laws of the land."

Echoing the view of veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, Presidential spokesman Ricardo Saludo said "elections have never failed in our country, even with the manual tallying of votes.

"Now, there will be automated counting in most precincts, with no more than 30% manual count in a worst-case scenario. Hence, there is nil chance of failure," Saludo said. "Of course, we can't stop alarmist critics and headline-seeking candidates from floating all sorts of dire scenarios for failures, takeovers and holdovers. But let our people be assured: Our elections have never failed. Neither will the 2010 polls, even if all our votes are counted by hand."