Z·O·O·M·I·N·G··I·N RUDY ROMERO FPJ, President-elect Monday, 05 24, 2004 With the passing of the days, it has become virtually certain that Fernando Poe Jr., won the May 10 presidential elections and it is only a matter of time before this fact is validated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel). Malacañang is doing everything to prevent the Filipino people from beginning to believe that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lost the elections to FPJ. Two things provide support for the increasingly firm belief that FPJ was the victor on May 10. Ironically, the first of these partook of the nature of a self-inflicted wound. In previous presidential elections, the newspapers and television networks maintained running tallies of votes cast for candidates for up to two weeks after election day. But in 2004, they curiously stopped maintaining such tallies barely thee days after May 10. This was a sharp departure from the practice of these media institutions in times past. Many Filipinos more Filipinos than Malacañang cares to admit — interpreted that departure from practice to mean that Malacañang — could no longer cope with a torrent of vote totals indicating a tide of national support for the man whom GMA and her followers derided as "that high school dropout." Since the newspapers and TV networks in question would not be able to keep up with the pro-FPJ victories up and down the country, they decided to stop featuring vote tabulations altogether. - page 252 -
Z·O·O·M·I·N·G··I·N RUDY ROMERO FPJ, President-elect Monday, 05 24, 2004 With the passing of the days, it has become virtually certain that Fernando Poe Jr., won the May 10 presidential elections and it is only a matter of time before this fact is validated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel). Malacañang is doing everything to prevent the Filipino people from beginning to believe that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lost the elections to FPJ. Two things provide support for the increasingly firm belief that FPJ was the victor on May 10. Ironically, the first of these partook of the nature of a self-inflicted wound. In previous presidential elections, the newspapers and television networks maintained running tallies of votes cast for candidates for up to two weeks after election day. But in 2004, they curiously stopped maintaining such tallies barely thee days after May 10. This was a sharp departure from the practice of these media institutions in times past. Many Filipinos — more Filipinos than Malacañang cares to admit — interpreted that departure from practice to mean that Malacañang could no longer cope with a torrent of vote totals indicating a tide of national support for the man whom GMA and her followers derided as "that high school dropout." Since the newspapers and TV networks in question would not be able to keep up with the pro-FPJ victories up and down the country, they decided to stop featuring vote tabulations altogether. - page 252 -
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