Mayuga report secret–DND

Defense officials on Thursday told the House of Representatives they could not give them a copy of the elusive Mayuga report on electoral fraud in the 2004 elections or reveal its findings because the document still had a “secret” security classification.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told a hearing of the House committee on appropriations on the defense budget on Thursday that the Mayuga report was still marked secret.

Former Navy Chief Rear Admiral Mateo Mayuga headed a military fact-finding panel in 2005 that cleared top military officials accused of allegedly conspiring to rig the 2004 elections.

Bayan Muna party-list member Neri Colmenares registered his “really vehement surprise” that a public interest document on electoral fraud would be considered a secret.

“You would be suspected of trying to cover up for certain officers. That will be the suspicion that will come to mind,” he told Gazmin and the other defense officials.

Colmenares said he had sent letters to the Office of the President, the Commission on Elections and the DND for a copy of the report. He said the DND did not reply at first and when it did, it said it was still reviewing the report.

Pio Lorenzo Batino, the defense undersecretary for legal and administrative affairs, said he headed a group that has been tasked to review all the records, transcripts and documents related to the Mayuga report to see if the conclusions contained in it were “logical, relevant or valid.”

He explained that the new DND leadership did not know about the history of the Mayuga report and has had to start from scratch to “come up with our own conclusions and submit our recommendations to the President.”

“Why, are you going to change the contents of the Mayuga report?” Colmenares asked Batino. He reminded the DND official that the new DND leadership should not touch the Mayuga report.

Batino said protocol dictated that the DND should first seek clearance from the President regarding requests for a copy of the report or to declassify it.

“This document, for your information, has not yet been declassified,” he said.

Colmenares then asked for copies of the transcripts of the Mayuga committee’s proceedings, to which Batino agreed.

Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, the committee chair, said he would personally check on the policies governing the distribution of and access to secret documents.

Cebu City Rep. Tomas Osmeña said the military and lawmakers should try to find a middle ground in accommodating the request for the Mayuga report.

Meanwhile, the joint Commission on Elections-Department of Justice committee investigating alleged irregularities in the 2004 and 2007 elections is considering looking into a possible connection between the alleged cheating and the murders of a district school supervisor and two senior Comelec officials.

According to an official familiar with the committee’s work, a positive finding that there was cheating in the two elections could be used to pinpoint who were responsible for the unsolved murders of school district supervisor Musa Dumasidsing, Comelec law department director Alioden Dalaig and his successor, Wynne Asdala.

“These officials are believed to have died because of their actions during the elections. If witnesses will come out, maybe their murders might be solved,” said the source who requested anonymity because he did not want to preempt the Comelec-DOJ panel.

Dumasidsing was fatally shot on June 9, 2007 in Pagalungan, Maguindanao after exposing incidents of ballot snatching and falsification of canvassing results in the town.