Reopening of 2004, 2007 poll probe urged

Fresh allegations of poll irregularities against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have prompted calls for the reopening of investigations into the 2004 and 2007 balloting in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Senate.

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. told reporters on Saturday that he was prepared to inhibit himself from the poll body and testify that cheating took place in the past presidential and senatorial elections. He was then an opposition lawyer in the two previous polls.

“Yes, I’ll inhibit. I might even become a witness,” Brillantes said.

The commission en banc with six members and even without him could vote to determine if there is probable cause to proceed against those culpable, Brillantes said.

He said the Comelec probe could take place if former Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and former Maguindanao Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol would agree to testify on alleged irregularities in the 2004 and 2007 polling.

Sen. Francis Escudero said at the weekend that he planned to file a resolution creating a fact-finding body to investigate the claims of Bedol and Ampatuan, who is facing multiple murder charges in the 2009 massacre of 58 people and wants to turn state witness.

Cool to proposal

Escudero said the body could be headed by a retired justice with representatives of the Department of Justice, Comelec, the Solicitor General and legislators as members.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, however, is cool to Escudero’s proposal.

“If that’s just a commission, the body would still submit its findings to the Department of Justice (DoJ) or the Ombudsman. Would we wait for another decade before bringing the perpetrators to justice?” Enrile said.

Brillantes served as counsel of the late Fernando Poe Jr. in the 2004 presidential election and of the 2007 opposition senatorial slate “Team Unity” that included Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who still has a pending election protest.

Poe lost to Arroyo. The actor-turned-politician filed an election protest but he died of a stroke in 2004 before the case could be resolved.

The following year, the “Hello Garci” scandal broke out. Critics said the alleged tapped phone conversations between Arroyo and a Comelec commissioner were evidence of election-rigging—a charge the former President and now Pampanga representative has denied.

“If I’m to be asked, ‘Did cheating take place in 2004?’ Yes. That’s why I filed the election protest on Poe’s behalf. If he didn’t die, I would have continued with the case. We really have allegations that cheating took place,” Brillantes said.

Nonbailable crime

According to Bedol, Arroyo was the main beneficiary of election cheating in Central Mindanao during the 2004 presidential election.

Ampatuan separately accused Arroyo, her husband Jose Miguel and then Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita of ordering election fraud in Central Mindanao during the 2007 senatorial elections to favor her candidates.

Brillantes said people found guilty of cheating in the 2007 polls would be charged with electoral sabotage, a nonbailable offense punishable by life imprisonment under Republic Act No. 9369, or the Automated Election System Act, that was enacted that year.

Only one person has been charged with election sabotage—former provincial Election Supervisor Lilia Radam, who was accused of tampering with poll documents that padded votes in favor of administration senatorial candidates in 2007.

Palace to back probe

On Saturday, Malacañang said it supported plans by Congress to revive the investigation on the alleged 2004 and 2007 poll fraud.

If the Comelec determines that Poe was the real winner in the 2004 elections, “we can still perform the symbolic act of putting his portrait in the Heroes’ Hall in Malacañang where all presidents’ portraits are placed,” Escudero said.

In the case of Arroyo, Escudero said one nominal gesture would be to take her retirement benefits away “if proven that she cheated.”

He added that the admissions made by Bedol and Ampatuan “could point us to the right direction.”

“We can still listen to them and weigh their story. It would be a shame to ignore their allegations,” said Escudero, who served as Poe’s spokesperson in 2004.