SILAY CITY – Vice President Noli de Castro called the dismissal yesterday of the election protest filed by Senator Loren Legarda against him a “triumph of the truth”.

He, however, refused to discuss whether he will run for the presidency in 2010 under the Lakas–CMD ticket saying he wants to buckle down to work for now.

The President does not like us to talk about politics because she wants work to get done, de Castro, who was in Bacolod City for the inauguration of the New Bacolod-Silay Airport in Barangay Bagtic, Silay City , told the DAILY STAR.

He said they have two-and-a-half years to get infrastructure projects to interlink the Philippines implemented and bring economic development to various parts of the country.

The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, yesterday dismissed and terminated the entire election protest of Senator Loren Legarda against De Castro, a press statement posted on its website said.

In a 20-page resolution penned by Senior Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, the PET dismissed for lack of legal and factual basis the First Aspect of Legarda's protest involving the correction of manifest errors of the Certificates of Canvass and Election Returns from Congress sitting as the National Board of Canvassers, it said.

The second aspect of the petition concerning the revision of ballots in 124,404 precincts had been already dismissed on June 5, 2007 pursuant to Rule 33 of the PET for Legarda's failure to deposit the P3.9 million to continue the revision of ballots despite extension, the SC statement said.

“The entire Protest is now deemed dismissed and terminated,” the PET said.

“This is the triumph of truth. The truth that I won fair and square. I thank the Supreme Court for echoing the true voice of the people. From the very beginning I was confident that I received the overwhelming mandate of our people as vice president. Again I thank the people for their support,” de Castro said in response

“I am glad that this issue is over once and for all. I am glad we have been finally vindicated. I hope we can now all put this issue behind us,” De Castro added.

“Let us now look forward to the future and join hands as we work together to protect the credibility of our electoral processes,” he said.*CPG

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