GMA, MIKE A. MAY SPEND X-MAS IN JAIL / GMA ORDERED 12-0 BUT NOT TO CHEAT
MANILA, OCTOBER 6, 2011 (STAR) By Sheila Crisostomo - Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes disclosed yesterday that former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo (photo at left) could face life imprisonment if they are convicted of rigging the 2007 elections in Maguindanao.
Brillantes said tampering with the results of the 2007 polls and other elections thereafter constitutes electoral sabotage under Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law.
"If you look at the magnitude of votes involved, it is definitely tantamount to electoral sabotage. The (14) election officers (EOs) that we presented could prove there were irregularities that took place in the 2007 elections there. That's a lot of votes," he said.
The joint investigating panel of the Comelec and the Department of Justice (DOJ) had presented the other day 14 EOs and one Computerized Voter's List technician from 15 towns in Maguindanao who have issued separate affidavits that they canvassed election returns (ERs) that were pre-prepared.
The results of the canvassing had posted a 12-0 win in favor of the senatorial candidates of Mrs. Arroyo's Team Unity (TU) administration slate.
Brillantes added that there are 22 municipalities in Maguindanao and other EOs are also willing to testify that there was rampant poll cheating in the province in 2007.
The Comelec-DOJ panel had also presented former Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas who "categorically and directly linked the Arroyo couple to the manipulation of the province's elections to gain a 12-0 victory for the TU senatorial bets."
Unas claimed that the Arroyos had instructed former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., for whom he worked from 2001 to 2009, to make the candidates win.
Under the law, it is considered electoral sabotage "when the tampering, increase and/or decrease of votes perpetrated or the refusal to credit the correct votes or to deduct tampered votes, is/are committed in the election of a national elective office."
Electoral sabotage shall also involve more than 10,000 votes that have been tampered to increase or decrease. This offense is punishable with life imprisonment.
Unas' affidavit, however, reflected discrepancies from the affidavit executed by jailed Maguindanao provincial election supervisor (PES) Lintang Bedol in July when he surfaced after hiding for four years.
Unas said Bedol was involved in the anomaly.
He said that the Board of Election Inspectors and EOs were under the "operational and administrative supervision and control" of Bedol who was tasked by Ampatuan to carry out the order of the Arroyos.
"They reported directly to PES Bedol. I had no actual knowledge or participation as to how the election documents were to be filled up or accomplished to ensure the 12-0 win by administration senatorial candidates," he maintained.
Unas added that his "actual participation was to comply with the instruction of Gov. Ampatuan to provide logistical support to the Comelec people."
Brillantes said the panel has been asking Bedol to give a supplemental affidavit to help shed light on what actually happened in Maguindanao in 2007.
Malacañang said there is credence in the testimony of Unas, who directly linked the Arroyo couple to electoral fraud in the May 2007 senatorial polls.
In a press briefing, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the affidavit of Unas is the most damaging and incriminating piece of evidence against the former first couple.
"This is personal knowledge. We asked if it is hearsay, but this is personal knowledge. So under the rules of evidence, personal knowledge is a very strong evidence," the lawyer-Cabinet member stressed.
Lacierda also said this is a welcome development for the Aquino administration, whose main thrust is anti-corruption, particularly because Ms. Arroyo, now a congresswoman of Pampanga, is the highest official to be involved in such electoral fraud.
"Well, the only thing that we are aware of is that Mr. Unas is the first person to be able to identify and to testify and to have personal knowledge that the (former) President ordered the 12-0 in the 2007 election," he said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Panfilo Lacson revealed that there is another election officer who would corroborate the claims of Unas that the Arroyos have knowledge of the fraud during 2007 elections.
Lacson said there is a second witness who approached the Senate to provide more details on how Unas and his team "maneuvered" the votes of the opposition candidates, how fake election returns were made and transported.
"The initial information we have is that the ERs were transported to Bukdinon first before they were brought to Maguindanao," Lacson said.
He said the new witness who will surface would corroborate Unas' statement.
"He (second witness) knows details on the fake ERs which came from Comelec, and then transported to Bukidnon then Maguindanao," Lacson added.
With the revelations of the second witness, Lacson vouched for the credibility of Unas since he was the so-called "operator" of then Maguindanao Gov. Ampatuan Sr.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, chairman of the Senate committee on electoral reforms, said he is consulting with his colleagues as to when they would be available for the first hearing on poll fraud.
Pimentel said he also received information on how the fake electoral returns were transported during the canvassing of the 2007 elections, adding that the paraphernalia also passed through Cagayan de Oro City.
Sen. Francis Escudero welcomed the statements of Unas, who first made the revelation before the joint panel of the Comelec and the DOJ.
Escudero challenged the Arroyo couple to face the accusations against them rather than blaming the Aquino administration over the exposés.
"They were the ones who made something wrong, a violation of law, so they should answer the allegations, they should not muddle the issue," Escudero said. – With Delon Porcalla, Christina Mendez
FROM THE TRIBUNE
Pichay: GMA ordered 12-0 win but not to cheat By Angie M. Rosales and Charlie V. Manalo 10/06/2011
Justice Chief Leila de Lima and poll Chairman Sixto Brillantes, both of whom claim to have "strong evidence" arising from the affidavit of former provincial administrator Norie Unas, who said he personally heard former President Arroyo order former Maguindanano Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. to ensure a 12-0 win for administration Team Unity senatorial candidates, may end up having no strong evidence but perjured testimony in their bid to link the former president to the 2007 election fraud.
Former Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) Chairman Prospero Pichay yesterday, in a phone interview with the Tribune, admitted that indeed Mrs. Arroyo did order all her then allies from the Lakas-Kampi NUCD party, which meant mayors, governors congressmen and senators nationwide to campaign for a 12-0 vote in favor of Team Unity senatorial bets.
"That was an order for Lakas partymates to campaign for the administration bets, and not an order to cheat in the 2007 polls," Pichay told the Tribune.
Pichay said he should know, since he was present at both meetings in Malacañang when the then president gave the 12-0 order to governors too, including Andal Sr.
"The President called on all the party members to campaign for a 12-0 vote, but look at what Unas is saying that she told Andal Sr. to change the election results. It is clear he is lying through his teeth. How can there be an order to change the election results when, at that time, there were still no elections, since it was still campaign time," Pichay said.
Pichay said the President gave the order in a gathering of governors under Lakas-Kampi CMD Party in Malacañang.
"Unas is definitely not credible, Number one, he really is fooling the people. Number 2, he was already tagged as one of the masterminds of the Maguindanao massacre yet he is being made a state witness by De Lima and Brillantes," Pichay stressed, adding that the administration should be careful in choosing their witnesses, because the administration may have an egg on its face.
The former president's legal counsel. Lawyer Raul Lambino also scored De Lima and Brillantes for exerting an all-out effort in trying to build up the credibility of their witness, Norie Unas despite being tagged as one of the masterminds in the Maguindano Massacre.
"The barrage of media reports quoting Comelec Chairman Brillantes, Secretary De Lima and Palace Spokesman (Edwin) Lacierda of trying hard to justify the credibility of their recent witness shows the desperation of PNoy and his administration to meet their obsession of persecuting Arroyo family," said Lambino.
"Unas who is named one of the masterminds of the dreadful Maguinadanao massacre and a plunderer is now being paraded and perfumed by the Aquino administration as 'its most credible witness' to pin down the former president and her husband.
De Lima and Brillantes' brazen impropriety of their actions and pronouncements have already compromised the impartiality and integrity of any investigations to be conducted by whatever body created for such purpose, he added.
"Both De Lima and Brillantes who were known election lawyers for the then opposition groups cannot leave their cloaks and continue to act and live like one," said Lambino. "They are propagandizing to advance their respective personal agendas which are obviously political, especially De Lima who has senatorial dreams.
Lacierda, Lambino said, should work and speak for what he s being paid for by the taxpayers, that is, to be the spokesman of PNoy and not as the lawyer-spokesman now of Unas and other dubious personalities.
Meanwhile, a senator was told by Brillantes to leave the issue of investigating the alleged massive poll fraud operations during the 2007 elections to the ongoing joint inquiry of the DoJ and the Commission on Elections.
Brillantes yesterday said it would not look good for Sen. Koko Pimentel to be on top of the Senate inquiry on the 2007 mid-term polls, alleged to be marred by cheating of massive scale, since the neophyte senator is considered a "party" to the issue.
Pimentel's electoral reforms committee has been tasked to look into the purported cheating and rigging of results of the senatorial race in 2007 and presidential elections in 2004.
Last Monday, Pimentel told reporters that while originally he intends to concentrate on the 2004 elections, he will also take up issues confronting the 2007 polls due to the surfacing of witnesses one after another recently.
"I have yet to talk to him but I think they (Pimentel and De Lima) already talked and I suggested that (Senate leave out the issue on 2007 polls) because it will not look good if he will be the one investigating when (in fact) he's the principal complainant (in the cheating charges). He's the direct casualty and he could and should testify as principal complainant," Brilllantes said in a chance interview with reporters at the Senate.
Pimentel, he added, is also the one who lodged complaint against those so-called principal accused especially on purported cheating operations that took place in Maguindanao.
"Besides, most of the evidence is in his possession, in his protest case (filed) before the SET (Senate Electoral Tribunal). So I think he should leave it to us. Anyway, De Lima and I were his lawyers before," Brillantes added.
The Comelec chief said he will seek clarification from Pimentel on the matter as he and De Lima already agreed that they will let the Senate concentrate on the 2004 polls and come up with the summary of the issues since ultimately charges will be filed before the DoJ.
"The Senate can not file criminal charges anyway. They will have to bring all their evidence to the DoJ and the Justice department will be filing the information (before the proper courts). So the Senate hearing should concentrate on the 2004. He (Pimentel) should not be active in the 2007 (polls) since he's involved there," he explained.
Brillantes said they see no issue in having Norie Unas, who implicated the Arroyo couple in the alleged rigging of the poll results during the 2007 elections in their province, appear before the Senate investigating body.
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