LAWYER Estrella Elamparo denied the claim of vice presidential aspirant Senator Francis Escudero that she filed her complaint against presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe at the behest of lawyers associated with the camp of ruling party candidate Manuel Roxas II.
“I am not familiar with Atty. Avelino Cruz,” Elamparo, a former lawyer of the Government Service Insurance System, said of former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, one of the most well known lawyers in the country.
“I have never personally met him. I only see him in photos. We move in the same circle but I have never personally met Atty. Avelino Cruz,” Elamparo told the reporters.
“I have never filed any pleading on his behalf. I have never been firmly engaged by him nor his firm,” she said. “There is no truth to that allegation.”
“And even if that were true, so what?” the lawyer asked. “That doesn’t disprove the allegations in my petition [against Poe’s candidacy].”
“I am inviting Senator Poe and Senator Chiz, this is nothing personal. I only wish the discussion moves on to what’s more important. If they truly believe that they are right. That’s what we should talk about” she added.
“It is unfair to drag the name of other people into this, especially the names of other lawyers in our law firm,” she added.
Elamparo said Poe and Escudero should just focus on their legal arguments instead of diverting the discussion to her background and connections.
Elamparo filed her petition against Poe’s candidacy a day after the senator filed her Certificate of Candidacy last month.
Her petition to cancel her CoC was favored by the Commission on Elections Second Division this week, disqualifying Poe to run for president next year.
Escudero pointed out on Thursday that Elamparo is a senior partner of Divina Law, the law firm engaged by Cruz served as an adviser of Roxas when he ran for vice president in 2010 and even represented Roxas when he filed an election protest against Binay following the 2010 elections.
Escudero also assailed Elamparo’s “zeal” in seeking the removal of Poe’s name from the Comelec’s official ballot when Poe still had several legal remedies to pursue before her case is deemed final and executory.
“Perhaps she is simply trying to gain publicity or attention for her cause, given that, as a lawyer, she should know that the relief she is asking for is not in accordance with the law and rules of the Comelec,” Escudero said.
But Senate President Franklin Drilon denied that Elamparo was connected with the Liberal Party which is endorsing Roxas’ presidential bid.
“No, not at all. I don’t know her and she is not connected (to LP), just to be clear,” said Drilon who, like Cruz, is known to have been one of the closest advisers of former President Gloria Arroyo, whom they both later abandoned.