TRIBUNE EDITORIAL: DESPERATION
MANILA, OCTOBER 6, 2011 (TRIBUNE) Desperation appears to mark the Noynoy administration in pinning down the Arroyo couple on the 2004 and 2007 election fraud, to the point of the Justice secretary and the acting Commission on Elections chairman presenting to the public some 16 election officers who today admit that they had cheated for the then administration candidates, with all of these election cheats now being covered by the government's witness protection program (WPP).
And it seems to be so easy for these poll cheating operators to get into the WPP, which is being quickly granted by Department of Justice (DoJ) Chief Leila de Lima. All they have to do is to issue affidavits stating that indeed, they had cheated for the previous administration's candidates, and all their sins against the Filipino people are forgiven and forgotten.
Yet when credibility enters the picture how credible are they, considering that these are practically the same election officers who have been operating to ensure fraud every election year, apart from which, it is hardly any secret that they do get paid for cheating, because it is not as if they cheated for candidates due to fear, or on orders of higher officials.
To be clear, this is not to state that the previous administration did or did not engage in poll fraud. This is to state that to legally prove that poll fraud was committed and ordered by the Arroyo couple, it should be more than just affidavits submitted by these congenital election fraudsters linking the Arroyos, who have found an easy way out to escape prosecution for their crimes and being placed under the WPP.
What makes De Lima, or even the Comelec itself, so certain that these same poll cheating operators won't do the same thing in the next elections — but this time for the current administration candidates?
These witnesses, as reported, claim that they have come forward because they want a stop to this criminal practice, and want to see reforms. That is pure crap. If the previous administration's presidential bet had won, these same so-called witnesses wouldn't come forward with their claims.
In much the same way, when this administration bows out, and another administration takes over and has poll cheating in say, either the 2013 or 2016 elections, it is almost certain that these same poll officials will again come up with their affidavits and even start singing about the automated cheating done in the 2010 presidential polls — as long as they will again be granted immunity and placed under the WPP.
De Lima presented a Norie Unas, former Maguindanao provincial administrator and a claimed aide to former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., whom De Lima stated had linked the Arroyos directly to the 2007 fraud.
Unas' statement went this way: He was with Andal Sr. in Malacañang where Gloria Arroyo then motioned to Andal Sr. to come to a corner with her, where Unas claimed to have heard Gloria giving Andal Sr. explicit orders to ensure a 12-0 victory for Team Unity senatorial candidates in Maguindanao.
Quickly, De Lima triumphantly claimed that this is not hearsay, but direct testimony. Naturally, she would have to say that, since she is so desperate to link the Arroyo couple to the fraud.
But check on the Unas claim and something just doesn't compute. Think about it: Gloria had motioned Andal Sr. to join her in a corner, which means just the two of them since she was giving explicit instructions for him to ensure the 12-0 TU victory. So why should Unas be there, too near to hear the two talking — assuming that this meeting really occurred?
Unas may have been the aide of Ampatuan Sr., but when a president, and in Malacañang itself, calls Andal to a corner to speak to him in confidence and whispers, it is impossible for an aide, who has not been called by the president, to follow his boss and be within hearing distance, especially on such an instruction to commit a crime.
Even in the "Hello Garci" tapes, and on clean line mobile lines, the woman speaking, said to be Gloria, was pretty careful in mentioning what was being done and what should still be done. Why should she then be giving instructions within hearing distance of an aide?
All these witnesses should really be prosecuted for the crime they have committed, instead of being made to commit more crimes, like providing clearly perjured testimonies to get off the hook.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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