Arroyo or FPJ? Probe will tell
The result of the 2004 presidential election has to be investigated so history can be corrected, Senator Francis Escudero said Friday.
Escudero said that with the resurrected allegations of election fraud, he was preparing to cosponsor a resolution seeking the creation of a fact-finding body that would look into who actually won the 2004 presidential polls.
“We just want to set the record straight,” Escudero told reporters in Baguio City, where he was a guest at Friday’s Cordillera Day celebration. He said that should the fact-finding body confirm that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo cheated in the 2004 presidential race, then her strongest opponent, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., could be posthumously declared winner of that election.
But according to Escudero, there will be “no case” against Arroyo even if the fact-finding body concludes that she cheated, and all directives and programs issued and implemented by her after the 2004 election would not be nullified.
Arroyo, now a representative of Pampanga province, was compelled by public outrage to apologize for phoning then Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who is believed responsible for the purported poll fraud that resulted in her victory.
We’ll do it
But members of the House of Representatives said they were in a better position than the senators to look into the claims of fraud in the 2004 and 2007 elections aired by former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Zaldy Ampatuan and former election officer Lintang Bedol.
“If we are to consider that a senator is alleged to be a beneficiary of the alleged fraud, then the House is a better venue,” House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said in a text message.
Gonzales was referring to Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who was accused by Ampatuan and Bedol as the main beneficiary of the cheating in Maguindanao province in the 2007 senatorial election.
Bedol was the Commission on Elections (Comelec) supervisor in Maguindanao during the 2007 polls, where a 12-0 sweep of the administration senatorial candidates triggered allegations of fraud.
Dasmariñas City Representative Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said that since both Senators Panfilo Lacson and Alan Peter Cayetano (along with then senatorial candidate Benigno Aquino III) received zero votes in the election fraud, it would be prudent for the claims of Ampatuan and Bedol to be discussed in neutral territory.
Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez said the House was in the best position to invite Ampatuan and Bedol to testify in an inquiry because the alleged election fraud covered national officials.
“These accusations should be investigated soon in order to put closure on [the matter] and initiate reforms to avoid this kind of manipulation,” Rodriguez said.
But Zambales Representative Milagros Magsaysay and Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño said it would be better for the Senate and the House to investigate the issue together because the senators should also have the chance to question Ampatuan and Bedol on their specific concerns.
The House committees on suffrage and electoral reforms and good government are to hold a hearing on the charges made by Ampatuan and Bedol after President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address on July 25.
‘Poe was cheated’
Vice President Jejomar Binay welcomed the claims of poll fraud aired by Ampatuan and Bedol, saying he hoped that these would bring “justice and vindication” not only to Poe but also to 2007 senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.
“We have been saying that all along—that FPJ (Poe) was cheated. We wish this will be resolved soon so that FPJ and those who voted for him will get justice,” Binay said in a statement, adding that had the 2004 elections been automated, “this would not have happened to [Poe].”
“We also hope that this development will also help resolve the protest of Koko Pimentel,” he also said.
Pimentel and Binay are the president and chair, respectively, of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), which was a member of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino that fielded Poe in the 2004 presidential race.
Binay was also the president of the United Opposition, which in 2007 coalesced with PDP-Laban and other parties to field the “Team Unity” senatorial lineup that included Pimentel.
Poe died of a stroke in December 2004 but his electoral loss was put in doubt in 2005 with the “Hello Garci” scandal, which involved tapped recordings of phone conversations between Arroyo and Garcillano.
In the 2007 senatorial race, where 12 Senate seats were to be filled, Pimentel landed in 13th place after questionable election documents from Maguindanao, some of which showed only administration candidates getting votes in several towns, were admitted in the canvassing.
On Thursday, Binay called for an investigation of the 2004 election results in Maguindanao, where Arroyo purportedly enjoyed an overwhelming victory (109,000 votes) over Poe (1,000).
“Until now, I cannot believe that [Poe] lost in Maguindanao,” Binay said in Tacloban City, where he led the regional launch of the Pabahay Caravan.
Binay said Ampatuan’s claim that the results of the 2007 senatorial election were rigged to favor Arroyo’s candidates confirmed what they had been saying all these years.
Surrender feelers
In an ambush interview Friday, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said renegade ex-election officer Bedol had sent surrender feelers to certain officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
“We have information that there is a search for him and that very likely, sooner than later, he will be located,” Robredo said.
In August 2007, the Comelec ordered Bedol’s arrest after finding him guilty of indirect contempt for failing to appear before the poll body to answer questions on the alleged election fraud in Maguindanao.
The Comelec also found Bedol criminally liable for the loss of election documents in the province.
But the ARMM police said they could not find the man despite an exhaustive search.
Robredo said Bedol might surface “probably within next week.” He said the DILG would provide protection to Bedol should it be requested. Reports from Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon; Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Jerome Aning and DJ Yap in Manila; Joey Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas
First posted 12:20 am | Saturday, July 16th, 2011
