Arroyo ordered poll fixing, Comelec exec tells court

MANILA, Philippines—The state witness lived up to his billing.

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The mission was clear, he said: Ensure a perfect victory for the Team Unity senatorial ticket of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, even if the actual count had to be fixed.

According to Norie Unas, the provincial election supervisor of Maguindanao, Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative under hospital arrest on charges of electoral sabotage, gave this directive to former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. in a meeting in Malacañang about two weeks before the 2007 elections.

Unas testified at the Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 112 hearing a petition for bail for the accused that he was there at the meeting and heard Arroyo tell Ampatuan that the administration’s senatorial slate should win in the province.

“I was about a foot away,” Unas replied to lawyers who asked how far he was from the former leader when the order was allegedly given out at the Kalayaan Hall of Malacañang at around the first week of May 2007, during a political event where the Team Unity senatorial slate was gathered.

Unas, who aside from being Maguindanao’s provincial administrator since 2001 was also Ampatuan’s “translator, technical guy and confidante,” said that Arroyo told Ampatuan, “It must be 12-0 in Maguindanao [in favor of Team Unity], even if the results needed to be fixed or changed.”

Unas told the court that Ampatuan replied by promising that “Maguindanao will deliver the votes.”

Unas said the instruction was repeated to them by the president’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, when the witness attended another meeting at the LTA Building in Makati.

He also claimed that Arroyo handed him a stack of P1,000 bills, “about three to four inches thick,” which was supposed to be spent to ensure the sweep.

But while he noted that he provided “logistical support” to Commission on Elections (Comelec) officers for the conduct of the polls and the tallying of votes, Unas admitted that he was not privy to information on how the rigging was done.

“I know that they did it [vote-rigging], but I did not see how,” he said during cross-examination.

Lawyers for the accused, which aside from Arroyo included Ampatuan and former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol, asked Presiding Judge Jesus Mupas not to consider Unas’ testimony.

Benjamin Santos, counsel for Arroyo, said the testimony should not be admitted because it was based on Unas’ affidavit which he submitted when he asked to be admitted to the government’s Witness Protection Program.

“Under the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act, if the application for witness protection is denied, any document submitted by the applicant for the purpose is deemed inadmissible in proceedings after the provisional protection has expired,” Santos told the court.

Santos noted that the Department of Justice, which administers the WPP, had only given Unas 90 days of provisional witness protection but did not grant his application to fully stay in the program.

Sigfrid Fortun, counsel for Ampatuan, said Unas’ testimony should be stricken off the court records because it was “self-serving” and “gratuitous.”

Fortun also noted that Unas’ affidavit was signed under the condition that he would get “immunity from criminal prosecution,” especially as he claimed that Unas was facing a barrage of charges, including being a suspect in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre and leading people to rebellion when the government declared martial law in the province on December 2009.

Unas is regarded by the Comelec as the star witness of its electoral sabotage case. He had declared that he could prove the conspiracy among Mrs. Arroyo, then Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos, Ampatuan, Bedol and other election officers in the 2007 elections.

Comelec lawyer Esmeralda Ladra said the prosecution was confident that the petition for bail filed by the accused would not be granted by the court.

“We are confident that we have built up a strong case against the accused, and that they will not be given bail,” she said.