WINNING SMILES. President Aquino welcomes relatives of victims of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre who visited him in Malacañang on Thursday. From left are Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, Dennis Ayon, Asmin Edza, Takungon Balayan and Eden Ridao. Behind the President is prosecutor Nena Santos. PHOTO BY EDWIN BACASMAS
Zaldy Ampatuan, along with Lintang Bedol, may yet get his wish to be a state witness—in a possible election sabotage case against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but not in the Maguindanao massacre, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Thursday.
De Lima spoke to reporters a day after Bedol claimed in an interview broadcast on ABS-CBN TV four years after he went into hiding that then President Arroyo had orchestrated the rigging of the 2007 senatorial elections in Maguindanao to favor her candidates.
“That is a new case, a totally different case and we can consider them, or whoever, if it is Zaldy Ampatuan or Lintang Bedol. It would depend on the extent of their participation,” De Lima said, referring to the alleged poll rigging.
The interview with Bedol was aired after Zaldy, the suspended governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), claimed in an unsigned affidavit that Arroyo had ordered the vote-padding for Juan Miguel Zubiri, who was elected senator.
Election Commissioner Rene Sarmiento on Thursday said that Bedol, a former poll supervisor in Maguindanao, faced immediate arrest.
“We are happy that he has showed up because it’s time for him to answer the cases filed against him. The police said they could not find him. For us, it’s good if he shows up to answer these cases so that justice will prevail,” Sarmiento said at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Zaldy has caused the release of unsigned affidavits alleging that then President Arroyo not only ordered the rigging of elections in Maguindanao, but that she also received P200 million in kickbacks in three road projects in the ARMM during her administration.
The allegations were made amid an attempt by the former ARMM governor to turn state witness in the massacre of 58 people in 2009 and testify against his father, former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his brother Andal Jr.
The three are among 79 people detained in connection with the murders.
De Lima has rejected Zaldy’s offer to turn state’s witness in the massacre.
Aquino assurance
In a meeting in Malacañang Thursday night with families of victims of the massacre, President Aquino sought to give assurance that there had yet been no deal on Zaldy’s offer to turn state witness in the massacre case.
“The position of the department, and this has been affirmed by the President, is that for now we’re not open for him to become a state witness,” De Lima said in a news conference after the meeting.
De Lima stressed that Zaldy did not qualify to be a state witness for now because he had yet to confess to any wrongdoing as a conspirator in the massacre. She added that there had been no formal offer for Zaldy to become state witness.
“When it comes to the massacre case, we have to be very careful because you cannot sacrifice this trial for anything. Because this is supposed to be the trial of the century, the litmus test of the Philippine criminal justice system,” De Lima said.
“The President categorically said that if the prosecution has no basis (for Zaldy) to be a state witness, then so be it,” said Nena Santos, counsel for Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, who led a group of 26 relatives of the massacre victims to the Palace.
“The President assured us the fight for the Maguindanao massacre victims will continue. Definitely, he will side with us,” said Mangudadatu, who lost his wife and sister in the 2009 carnage.
Totally different case
De Lima said in the earlier news conference that the election sabotage was a “totally different case” and that she would consider either Zaldy or Bedol as state witness depending on their participation in the crime that carries a penalty of life imprisonment.
De Lima had served as counsel for lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano in the Maguindanao senatorial poll rigging. Pimentel lost the 12th Senate slot to Zubiri by a slim margin. His election is still under litigation after a Pimentel protest.
Asked if Bedol’s resurfacing was “crucial,” De Lima replied in the affirmative.
“I know that matter very well,” she said, referring to Bedol’s admission in the TV interview of vote-shaving and -padding in the 2007 balloting. “We knew that all along. We’ve been saying that all along,” De Lima said.
De Lima also vouched for Commissioner Sarmiento, who Bedol said was among the Comelec officials led by then Chairman Benjamin Abalos and Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, who had authenticated during a trip to General Santos City the municipal certificates of canvass from Maguindanao at the height of the controversy.
De Lima disputed the claim of Bedol, who had said that the original certificates had gone missing, and that Sarmiento was in General Santos City at the time.
Bedol subject to arrest
Asked how trustworthy and credible Zaldy and Bedol were, De Lima said these were part of the “assessment, the plausibility” that the President had ordered on the allegations of corruption and electoral fraud.
“Why are they speaking only now? Why did they surface only now? You ask them why,” De Lima said.
She recalled that after the fact-finding mission in General Santos City, she and other election lawyers had to go to Maguindanao for the recanvassing of votes from the province.
Sarmiento said Bedol would be subject to immediate arrest, citing a Comelec contempt order after he failed to show up in a hearing after the 2007 vote.
“Any law enforcement agency can implement the warrant of arrest and order of commitment,” said Sarmiento, who also denied Bedol’s claim that he was part of the team that went to General Santos.
In a separate news conference, Abalos denied Bedol’s claim that he had a hand in the cheating in Maguindanao. He said that Bedol’s allegation that the team had “authenticated” fake poll returns was “untrue.”
Abalos said that certificates of canvas were placed in a box, sealed and shipped out immediately to the board of canvassers. “How could we have authenticated these documents as Bedol alleges.”
Zubiri denied involvement in the vote-padding.
“I swear to all of you that if ever fraud happened, I had nothing to do with it. I have not talked to anybody to count the votes in my favor,” Zubiri said.
Speaking for his son, former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called on Zubiri to resign.
“If the foundation of your being in the Senate is fraudulent, then you have no business being in the Senate whether you like it or not,” Pimentel said.—With reports from TJ Burgonio, Kristine Felisse Mangunay, DJ Yap and Cynthia D. Balana