Palace says evidence of poll fraud in documents attached to Mayuga report

MANILA, Philippines—The Palace on Thursday agreed with lawmakers, who have a copy of the declassified Mayuga report, that evidence of the election fraud during the 2004 presidential election was not in the report itself but in the documents provided there.

“The evidence is not in the report itself. It is in the various documents that are part of the report,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told reporters, in reference to the annexes attached to the report prepared by then Navy chief Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga who looked into the alleged involvement of the military in the election cheating of the 2004 presidential election.

Lacierda reiterated this was the analysis given to President Benigno Aquino by the Presidential Management Staff which upon the President’s orders had studied the documents and the report itself.

He said this was why the Chief Executive had directed the Department of National Defense to look into the documents thoroughly, a task that Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin in turn has given to his undersecretary, Pio Batino.

But Lacierda, echoing what Aquino said as early as last month, stated that through this review of the documents, the government can no longer file any charges that were election-related because the five year prescription period to do so had already expired even before when Aquino came into power in June last year.

Aquino had earlier said the Mayuga report failed to follow the leads raised by witnesses and resource persons that the investigating team questioned.

And because of the PMS analysis, the President had also tasked the Department of Justice to look into other possible violations other than election-related ones based on the documents.

Among the possible leads he cited included allegations that either a top official or someone influential during the administration of Arroyo had visited some military camps and issued directives to authorities that were illegal.

Lacierda’s statements came a day after Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño, who got hold of the declassified report, said that “a more detailed review of the annexes will reveal more sordid details of the (military’s) role in the 2004 election fraud.”

The Mayuga report was never released during Arroyo’s administration until the military declassified it last Tuesday.

In his briefing, Lacierda said the government would release the declassified Mayuga report to those requesting for a copy as directed by Aquino.

“(The President) said those who will request (for a copy), we will provide them,” he said.

Full text of the Mayuga report, page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16