GO to Team Unity bets: Did Arroyo cheat in '04?

The Genuine Opposition (GO) on Friday trained its gun on Team Unity candidates Sen. Edgardo Angara, former senators Vicente “Tito" Sotto III and Tessie Aquino-Oreta as it demanded the three to make a stand on whether President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cheated in the 2004 elections. GO spokesman Adel Tamano said the people deserve a direct answer from Angara, Sotto and Oreta on the matter because the three joined the outcry against Mrs Arroyo during the “Hello, Garci" tape scandal in 2005. “They should reveal all. They must answer these questions: Do they really believe that [the President] indeed cheated in the 2004 elections? Judicially, is there evidence that [she] cheated her way into the presidency?" Tamano said. At the height of the campaign for the 2004 elections, Sen. Panfilo “Ping" Lacson, who also ran for president that year, said Angara was the mole of Mrs Arroyo in the opposition. Angara and Sotto handled the campaign of the late movie actor Fernando Poe, Jr, standard bearer of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino with then Sen. Loren Legarda as his running mate. “We have the right to ask them. He (Angara) keep on saying don’t put me on the spot. He has to be put on the spot because he is running for senator. The Filipinos deserve direct answer," Tamano said. Meanwhile, former senator Ernesto Maceda, executive committee member of GO, asked Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to stop his “absurdity and idiocy," in a bid to discredit the candidates of the opposition. Maceda reminded Gonzalez that GO senatorial candidate Alan Peter Cayetano ran thrice and won as Taguig-Pateros representative under Mrs Arroyo’s Lakas party. “This is the height of absurdity and idiocy now raised about Cayetano’s citizenship. Cayetano was presented by Lakas as its congressional candidate in Taguig-Pateros three times. The citizenship for congressmen and senators is exactly the same. Gonzalez is now in estoppel to raise that question (Cayetano’s citizenship)," Maceda said. Maceda said Cayetano’s sister, Sen. Pia Cayetano, was also born in Michigan and the administration also presented her as a natural born citizen. “This dirty tactic of Mrs Arroyo’s boys really comes to mind their effort to disqualify Fernando Poe, Jr in the 2004 elections. To me, this demonstrates not only the vindictiveness of First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike" Arroyo who filed complaints for libel against the media and before the ethics committee against Cayetano. Subsequently, they came up with this," Maceda said. Maceda said the administration is fielding Joselito P. Cayetano for senator under the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party to jeopardize Alan Cayetano’s candidacy. “This is an act of desperation because Cayetano is No.4 in the recent Pulse Asia and Social Weather Station surveys. I’m willing to bet they are making Alan Cayetano the martyr. He will be on top of the survey. Dirty politics to the nth degree," Maceda said.- GMANews.TV