6 ‘Garci Boys’ still holding key positions in Comelec

Some things never change.

Officials implicated in the “Hello, Garci” poll cheating scandal are still occupying key positions in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) despite the appointment of a new chair, according to Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano.

The senator sounded the alarm particularly on Ray Sumalipao, the highest Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) election official tagged in the 2004 poll scandal.

Cayetano said Sumalipao was “the most mentioned name as a Garci operator” during the congressional probe into the scandal. Sumalipao is now the Comelec director for ARMM, he pointed out.

“If we retain the same people in the ARMM, then any form of reform will just be on paper,” he said.

Sumalipao had been described as a protege of former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio “Garci” Garcillano, the alleged architect of a supposed effort to manipulate the results of the 2004 presidential election in favor of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Sumalipao was also supposedly among the Comelec officials who had dinner with Arroyo in her house at La Vista subdivision in Quezon City in January 2004, three months before the elections. The group allegedly received huge sums during the affair. Sumalipao has denied the allegations.

Cayetano also identified five other officials implicated in the cheating scandal who, he said, are still with the Comelec.

They are Renault Macarambon, chief of the election and barangay affairs division; Renato Magbutay, Region X director; Teopisto Elnas Jr., a director at Macarambon’s division; Cirilo Nala Jr., Comelec supervisor for Surigao del Sur, and Francisco Pobe, acting director for the Caraga region.

CA hearing

Cayetano cited the continued presence in the Comelec of Sumalipao and company in opposing the confirmation of veteran election lawyer Sixto Brillantes Jr. as Comelec chair during a Commission on Appointments hearing earlier this week. The commission bypassed Brillantes’ appointment.

Cayetano noted that despite the issues raised against Sumalipao, Brillantes still tapped him to “oversee preparations” for the 2011 ARMM elections.

The regional polls were supposed to take place on Aug. 8 but Malacañang succeeded in securing congressional consent to postpone and synchronize these with the 2013 elections.

Why Sumalipao?

“When you said you were preparing for the ARMM polls before we passed a law to postpone it to 2013, I have to question why you not only chose to go manual but even chose Attorney [Sumalipao] to handle it. What will the perception be, based on that?” Cayetano told Brillantes at the hearing.

Cayetano asked Brillantes why he had not initiated a formal investigation into the “Hello, Garci” scandal in the five months he had been Comelec chair.

“You have to ask who was involved and where they (are) now. You cannot use due process as a reason because the President did not appoint you to become the lawyer of these officials in question,” Cayetano said.

No cases against them

Brillantes, in a phone interview, denied coddling the so-called “Garci boys.”

“I don’t know any of them and I’m not aware of any case filed against them. Garcillano himself hasn’t been jailed, how much more they?” Brillantes said.

Sumalipao has denied involvement in alleged efforts to rig election results in Mindanao to favor Arroyo.

Cayetano, in his statement, did not spell out the specific acts which the Comelec officials he cited did during the 2004 polls.

Missing poll officer

Former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., citing media reports, had said Magbutay was the one who informed Garcillano of the disappearance of a Basilan election official carrying certificates of canvass and election returns.

Magbutay reportedly suggested that family members of the missing poll official be kidnapped to force the officer to surface, Pimentel claimed.

Pobe is said to have identified himself as “Danny” in the “Hello, Garci” tapes, while Macarambon was supposedly mentioned by Garcillano in the same tapes as his “point man,” according to Pimentel.

In 2007, then Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos said the  Comelec officials identified with Garcillano had been investigated by the Senate but were never charged with any offense.

Abalos also said no Comelec official had ever been charged with any wrongdoing in relation to the “Hello, Garci” scandal. With reports from Jerome Aning and Inquirer Research