MANILA, Philippines—The head of a military fact-finding panel that looked into the involvement of the Armed Forces in the 2004 presidential election is asking for disclosure of the so-called “Mayuga Report” to stop continued speculation about alleged election fraud cover-up.
Retired Navy chief Rear Admiral Mateo Mayuga said that while he was pleased to hear President Benigno Aquino talking about some of the recommendations of the Mayuga Report on how to improve the conduct of the elections, some sectors had made statements implicating former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and some retired military officials.
“In fairness to me, I think the people who are holding the (Mayuga) report should do the talking,” Mayuga told the Inquirer in an interview.
“Ilabas na lang nila (Let them make it public). People are interested in it and they keep on speculating. I don’t see any harm in revealing the contents of that report,” he said.
Aquino, who had apparently read the Mayuga report, said it did not implicate Arroyo and that the government could no longer touch on the subject of election violations because the five-year prescription period for this expired in 2009.
Still, he said, he has asked the defense and justice departments to look into other violations that may have been committed as revealed by the Mayuga report.
These include allegations that a high official or someone in power in the past administration visited the military camp before the election, said Aquino.
Mayuga clarified that the panel’s investigation was primarily meant to check the systems and procedures in the AFP in relation to election duties.
He said the most important highlight of the report was the recommendation to stop the counting of votes in military camps to avoid suspicion of the AFP being partisan. This, he said, was eventually implemented in the 2007 elections.
“That’s why it was a much improved AFP participation in the 2007 elections because they implemented our recommendations. They revisited the role of the AFP and made certain amendments on its role in elections,” he said.
Mayuga said he could no longer remember other findings but stressed that the findings on the involvement of certain military officers in electioneering during the 2004 presidential contest were incidental.
He said he could not remember whether the report mentioned the names of the military officers implicated.
“I could not remember the report because I signed so many reports and documents during my stint. Show me the report and I will confirm it,” he said.
He said it was difficult at that time because people were asking for certain heads to roll even before the investigation had started.
The report was completed in six to eight months, he said, and was submitted to then AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Efren Abu, who then fowarded it to the secretary of national defense.
Mayuga is now chairman and chief executive officer in Manila of the Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Inc., which services foreign navies, including aircraft carriers, arriving in Manila by providing marine logistics, security and food.
He said he was not sure of the report’s security cover – whether top secret or classified – but said it could still be with the AFP.
“Kung mali ang report ko, dapat ibinalik na sa akin (If my report was wrong, it should have been returned to me). But it was never returned to me, which means they accepted the findings,” he said.
Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Javier Colmenares and Teddy Casiño said they will ask the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms to subpoena the Mayuga report in its hearing next week on a resolution they drafted asking the committee to look into allegations of cheating and electoral fraud in the 2004 presidential and 2007 senatorial elections next week.
Colmenares said that he wrote two weeks ago to President Aquino, the Commission on Elections and the Department of National Defense asking for a copy of the report.
He said Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes and the Office of the President replied that they had no copy of the report while there was still no word from Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin..
Mayuga said he would not mind appearing in congressional investigations and talk about his report as long as it is shown to him for validation.