The Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino of former President Joseph Estrada backed calls by undefeated three-term Mayor Lito Atienza to put the entire City of Manila under full control and supervision of the Commission on Elections following discovery of a plot involving the camp of Mayor Alfredo Lim to fabricate official results of the elections for president, vice president and mayor in advance of the May 10 polls.

“We will support Mayor Atienza’s decision,” President Estrada said in a statement issued by his spokesperson Margaux Salcedo.

Estrada’s PMP party had earlier endorsed the comeback bid of Atienza for a record fourth-term as Manila Mayor against incumbent Alfredo Lim, whose men were linked by a concerned City Hall to a conspiracy to rig election results in Manila by using pre-fabricated election results supposed to be transmitted to the Comelec through the internet soon as the polls close in Manila on May 10.

The witness, Ms. Ronilda Reluya, had issued a sworn statement testifying that she herself saw accomplished election returns for the May 10 elections for the post of president, vice president, mayor down to councilors which showed that Lim already won the still to be held mayoralty elections, with LP bets Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas also winning over their opponents.

Reluya, a computer operator at City Hall’s electronic data processing unit under the Office of the Mayor, also testified that at least eight people carried out the scheme after all the EDP personnel were asked to leave the office. She said she discovered the anomaly soon as they came back to work.

In a press conference, Atienza asked the Comelec to reshuffle their personnel assigned to man Manila’s polling centers even as he appealed to concerned groups, including the Parish pastoral Council for Responsible Voting to remain vigilant against all attempts to thwart the popular will of the people of Manila in the coming elections.