WASTE OF TIME & MONEY: SENATE REJECTS FRAUD PROBE OF 2004 POLL
PHOTO - ENRILE REJECTS FRAUD PROBE: PROPOSAL A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY]
MANILA, JULY 19, 2011 (MANILA TIMES) BY JAIME PILAPIL REPORTER -
SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile on Sunday rejected calls for Congress to investigate massive fraud that allegedly marred the 2004 national elections amid revelations of suspended Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Commission on Elections (Comelec) Maguindanao Supervisor Lintang Bedol that then-President Gloria Arroyo had a hand in the reported poll-rigging in the region.
Enrile said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) or the Office of the Ombudsman should instead proceed in prosecuting suspects to find out if they were indeed guilty of poll fraud.
The Senate President opposed the plan of Sen. Francis Escudero to put up a fact-finding commission that will investigate the extent of the alleged poll cheating seven years ago.
He said that creating such commission would be a waste of time and money considering that Fernando Poe Jr. had passed away and that Mrs. Arroyo's term as president had also expired.
Poe was the defeated candidate of the opposition in the 2004 balloting, which was won by Mrs. Arroyo.
"In my opinion, the one in question is already a thing of the past. If there was electoral fraud, the right agency to investigate it is either the Department of Justice or the Office of the Ombudsman. Include everybody in the charge sheet and file electoral fraud charge or electoral sabotage," Enrile said.
Bedol, who is supposedly now in Metro Manila to reveal what he knows, had said that there was massive cheating in Mindanao in 2004.
According to the former Comelec official, Poe should have won the elections then, not Mrs. Arroyo.
He said that the poll irregularities in Maguindanao in 2007 bolstered the win for Arroyo allies.
Ampatuan, currently facing multiple-murder charges for his alleged role in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, claimed that no less than his father, former Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. of ARMM, took part in the plan to rig the elections in the region.
Escudero had suggested placing a portrait of actor Fernando Poe Jr. in Malacañang's roster of former presidents.
The senator said that placing Poe's portrait at the Heroes Hall is one way of giving the actor-turned-politician his rightful place in history.
Poe died in December 2004, months after claiming that he was cheated by Mrs. Arroyo, who was proclaimed winner amid suspicion of sabotaging the race for president.
Hold departure order Meanwhile, Rep. Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito of San Juan City (Metro Manila) also on Sunday urged the Bureau of Immigration to prepare issuance of a hold departure order (HDO) against Mrs. Arroyo, now a lawmaker representing Pampanga, should plunder suits lodged against her reach the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.
Ejercito called on the bureau to keep an eye on the former president, who is facing separate plunder charges for her alleged involvement in misuse of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration funds and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office intelligence funds as well as her reported participation in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.
"In case plunder charges against former President Arroyo reach the Sandiganbayan, I think our Immigration officials should prepare the hold departure order against her," he said.
But Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora, while telling the former president to "face the music," noted that the flight risk of Mrs. Arroyo is low.
"I think an accused has no choice but to face the charges as there are adverse consequences to not doing so. A hold departure order is probably not needed at this stage of the proceedings as it seems the risk of plight by the accused seems quite low," Angara said.
House Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Simeon Datumanong of Maguindanao, a known Arroyo ally in the House of Representatives, also said that there is no basis for the issuance of an HDO against Mrs. Arroyo.
"I don't think it is right to issue hold departure order against her right now," said Datumanong, a former Justice secretary.
He maintained that the plunder charges are unfounded and baseless.
"On the basis of what I read and heard, there is no basis for plunder and for violation of law regarding the 2004 and 2007 elections," Datumanong said.
Worse than plunder Former President Joseph Estrada also on Sunday said that Mrs. Arroyo's acts might be considered to be worse than plunder, adding that corrupting even the Catholic Church was unforgivable.
Estrada, during a television interview, joined mounting calls for the former president to answer the charges of poll fraud hurled against her by Ampatuan and Bedol.
He said that it only proved their point long ago—that Mrs. Arroyo stole the presidency not once, but twice—the first was during the Edsa 2 revolution, and the second was the 2004 elections.
Estrada added that Mrs. Arroyo stole power, corrupted the military and now even tainted the Church.
Central to the plunder charge against Mrs. Arroyo was the misuse of PCSO intelligence funds.
WITH REPORTS FROM RUBEN D. MANAHAN 4TH AND FRANCIS EARL A. CUETO
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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