Comelec to decide Tuesday whether or not to probe poll fraud

Is the probe to be or not to be?

This is the question the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will have to resolve next week, whether or not to investigate the alleged electoral fraud perpetrated in Maguindanao during the 2007 elections.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the commissioners sitting en banc on Monday or Tuesday would decide whether to proceed with a formal investigation in the wake of the emergence of fugitive Maguindanao election officer Lintang Bedol.

Jimenez said Comelec lawyers  have been talking to and coordinating with Bedol, who surfaced last Tuesday after four years of hiding and submitted an affidavit detailing irregularities in the 2004 and 2007 elections.

“We do not want to hasten things because if we do, we might miss something,” he said.

The commission has sent lawyers to Bedol who is detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame for him to provide more details about his allegations.

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes earlier said the poll body did not need to review the sworn statements of Bedol and other witnesses for it to decide to conduct a formal preliminary investigation into the allegations of electoral fraud.

Jimenez said the Comelec in waiting to see if former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano would indeed surface, following the claim this week by presidential adviser on political affairs Ronald Llamas that Garcillano had sent “feelers” that he was ready to come out and tell what he knew of the 2004 election cheating.

Jimenez said the poll body remains hopeful that it would get the cooperation of Garcillano who might be able to provide valuable insight into the electoral fraud allegations.

“We are not saying that he is at fault or he had anything to do with it but he is probably one of those (people) in the best position to know because he was very active as a commissioner then so he might be able to help,” he said.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Malacañang had no problem with reports that Garcillano may be “backtracking” from his supposed offer.

Garcillano’s lawyer Eddie Tamondong has said that it was illogical for Garcillano to face a probe again as he had been supposedly cleared years before.

“(Garcillano) was the one that sent feelers. We’re not running after him,” Lacierda told a news briefing.

“So let Eddie Tamondong talk to his client or former client and let Mr. Garcillano explain, not us,” he added.

Tamondong was appointed during the Arroyo administration to the board of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. He filed a case to question his dismissal at the onset of the Aquino presidency.

Pressed about reports that Garcillano himself has denied any knowledge about poll fraud in 2004, Lacierda said: “Again, well, he sent feelers. Now, if he’s backtracking, we don’t have any problem with it.”  Jeannette I. Andrade and Norman Bordadora