SAF commandos confirm 2004 poll fraud cover-up

SAF commandos confirm 2004 poll fraud cover-up

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS

VERA Files

(First of two parts)

When Gloria Arroyo delivers her eighth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa session hall today, she will be standing close to where, three years ago, police commandos say they replaced genuine election returns (ERs) with fake ones in ballot boxes that were being readied for a recount of the 2004 presidential election.

The ER switching at the Batasan had been talked about and reported on since 2005, when Arroyo apologized for talking to an election official while the votes were being counted, in what has since been known as the "Hello, Garci" scandal.

Recently, some of those who took part in that clandestine operation have sought legal refuge, executing affidavits and taped testimonies of their involvement. Others told friends in confidence, while a few boasted about it in drinking sessions.

They said they switched the ERs of several provinces on three occasions to reconcile these with the figures in the certificates of canvass (COCs) and statements of votes (SOVs) that were tampered with in the 2004 elections.

The stories told by some of the participants and their confidants in the Batasan operation constitute what could be grounds for another impeachment case against Arroyo.

They revive allegations that not only did the President cheat in the 2004 elections, but also tried to cover her tracks by switching the ERs that would have been scrutinized in 2005. At that time, the presidential electoral protest filed by Arroyo’s opponent, Fernando Poe Jr., was still pending. Poe died of a heart attack in December 2004, but his widow, Susan Roces, pursued the protest. (She was turned down on the ground that the party in interest had died.)

Among those who took part in the Batasan operation were members of the Special Action Force (SAF), an elite unit of the Philippine National Police.

Some of them said they got their orders from Chief Supt. Marcelino Franco, then commanding officer of the SAF. Both Franco and the then chief of the SAF Intelligence and Investigation Division, Supt. Rafael Santiago, were present at a briefing on the operation, SAF sources said.

The SAF sources refused to be named for fear of their safety and that of their families. MALAYA The rest of this story.
Part 2
Related Link
Arsenio Rasalan

Zubiri’s Senate seat in peril as SET OKs ballot review

Zubiri’s Senate seat in peril as SET OKs ballot review

By Angie M. Rosales

Daily Tribune 06/20/2008

The possibility of a last-minute change in the composition of the current 23-man Senate was raised yesterday as the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) issued a resolution ordering the continuation of a review of contested election results following the findings of prima facie evidence and reasonable grounds on the complaint of losing senatorial bet, lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel.

The SET itself, in its nine-page resolution dated June 17, said that “spurious” ballots could directly affect the outcome of last year’s national polls, considering that Pimentel’s closest rival, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, who was proclaimed as the 12th senator, only won by 19,292 votes.

Zubiri’s camp, through his lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, however, remained unperturbed by this latest development, claiming he remains confident of Zubiri keeping his current post.

Macalintal said they welcome the resolution of the SET, to erase all doubts over his client’s victory as the 12th winning senator and that they are confident that, in the end, Zubiri’s victory will be affirmed.

“He is not surprised by the said resolution to proceed with the revision proceedings as it is the usual procedure in an election protest. The findings with regard to some spurious ballots found during the revision proceedings will not affect Zubiri’s standing since it has to be established that these are the same ballots used during the election or the ones counted at the precinct level,” Macalintal, who also acts as spokesman on the senator’s poll issue, said.

In particular, however, the so-called spurious votes are mainly from Mindanao, where all too suddenly, Zubiri obtained close to 100,000 votes in just one area, wiping out the 100,000 vote lead of Pimentel. The other Mindanao votes for Zubiri were also seen as questionable.

The contending parties have been issued gag order in discussing the pending protest case in public.

The SET has directed the parties to proceed with the revision on the remaining 75 percent of the contested precincts and the re-tabulation of the election documents in Patikul, Sulu.

“Accordingly, finding sufficient cause therefore, the Tribunal orders the continuation of the proceedings in the instant electoral protest case,” the tribunal said in its resolution.

This came following the recent completion by the SET of the recount of the disputed votes in pilot areas in four Mindanao provinces cast in the May 14, 2007 senatorial election in connection with the electoral protest filed by Koko Pimentel, a Genuine Opposition (GO) candidate.

This is pursuant to the SET rules which provide that a protesting candidate must prove he has solid basis for his protest by showing evidence of fraud in at least 25 percent of the election results in pilot places that are subject of his protest.

In the said resolution, the SET, composed of three Supreme Court justices and six incumbent senators, said results of the initial revision on the first 25 percent precincts revealed that Pimentel, the protestant, “has prima facie valid cause of action.”

“Indeed, there is reasonable ground to believe that the final outcome of the case could affect the officially proclaimed results for the 12th senatorial position in the 14 May 2007 national elections, hence, the election protest case deserves further proceedings by the Tribunal,” it said.

“Suffice it to say at this time, that the results of the initial revision and appreciation proceedings already done showed that the 14 May 2007 election in certain designated pilot areas was characterized by proven irregularities,” it further said.

Of the said revision proceedings comprising 25 percent of the questioned precincts, the tribunal discovered in six of the nine pilot municipalities in Maguindanao and Lanao del Norte, for instance, 98.15 percent of the ballots cast were found to be “spurious” or at least 70,922 ballots were discovered to have been doctored or spurious while only 1,334 ballots were considered genuine.

Zubiri of Team Unity (TU) received some 11,004,099 votes while Pimentel was ranked 13th with 10,984,807 votes.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on July 14, 2007 proclaimed Zubiri as the last winning senator and immediately after, Pimentel filed his protest case before the SET.

The losing senatorial candidate and namesake of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has questioned the results in some 2,658 precincts covering 44 municipalities and seven provinces.

Earlier, the minority leader noted the conduct of the revision proceedings where his son has subjected 664 Precincts in Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Lanao del Norte and Sulu as his pilot precinct areas.

Before the physical counting of the votes in the pilot areas, Koko Pimentel was trailing his rival by 17,251. But after the physical counting of the votes in the pilot areas, he led his rival by 17,117 votes, the minority leader said.

The bases for the reversal of leads consisted of proof submitted by Koko and his lawyers that showed, among other things:

1. The massive use of fake or spurious ballots testified to, among others, by Miguel Arcadio, division chief of the Press Division of the National Printing Office and Teodoro Ferrer, then consultant of the Printing Committee of the Commission on Elections.

2. Use of fake election returns (without watermarks, different sizes of forms, texture of paper, etc.)

3. Mixed genuine and fake ballots in certain precincts.

4. Ballots clearly written by one person or by the same group of cheats as shown by similar handwriting styles or strokes.

5. Precincts without tally boards.

6. Falsified statement of votes as in Matungao, Lanao del Norte.

7. Dagdag-bawas in Basilan where Koko’s votes were slashed by 4,260 votes.

Maguindanao poll anomalies found in SET

The Supreme Court’s senate electoral tribunal panel has opened can of worms in the alleged election fraud committed by elections officials in Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan. Sooner or later fugitive Lintang Bedol and his conspirators will reveal the real score what transpired during the fraudulent 2004 presidential election and 2007 midterm elections.

Pimentel set to unseat Zubiri with fraud proved in Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan ballot boxes

Zubiri poll anomalies found in SET

By Charlie V. Manalo
01/12/2008
It may be just a matter of time before Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III unseats Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, who is likely to lose his place in the Senate, and perhaps even in shame, with the discovery of the electoral tribunal panel of too many cases of blatant election anomalies.
And it won’t be long either for those involved in the massive election cheating committed against Pimentel, successfully depriving him of a Senate seat, to be brought to the halls of justice and eventually behind bars, by Pimentel himself.
The Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) has uncovered election irregularities in four municipalities of Maguindanao and a municipality in Shariff Kabunsuan, with the the number of votes involved reportedly enough for Pimentel to overtake Zubiri’s lead over him for 12th place in the 2007 senatorial elections.
In his protest, Pimentel contests the results of 2,658 precincts where votes had been manipulated to enable administration candidate Zubiri to dislodge him for the last Senate seat.
In an interview yesterday with Pimentel’s lawyer, Leila de Lima, she pointed out that she and her client are satisfied with the early results of the revision being conducted by the SET as the five municipalities alone are enough for Pimentel to unseat Zubiri.
“In the four municipalities of Maguindanao, namely the Ampatuan, Buluan, Paglap and Gindulungan, the number of votes involved is 25,000 which Mr. Zubiri got,” said De Lima. “However, upon opening of the ballot boxes, the SET found out that all election
except the ballots, were all missing.”
She added that upon review of the ballots, most of thesewere found to have been faked and manufactured as they did not bear any of the security features.
De Lima stressed that “the revisionists found out that everything written on the original ballots was done by only one person as can be attested by the same penmanship all throughout.”
It will be recalled that on election day, or a few days after the polls closed, reports were out that teachers who were tapped as election officers, were said to have been abducted and brought to an unnamed island, where they were told by armed men, said to belong to the military, to fill up the empty ballots, all in the name of administration senatorial candidates.
The teacher-whistleblowers came to Manila to face the Commission on Elections commissioners and testify to the fraud being perpetrated. The Comelec commissioners, however, refused to hear them out.
De Lima said what she found more interesting “is the Municipality of Sulatan Kudarat in the Province of Shariff Kabunsuan where Mr. Zubiri established a lead of 31,000 votes over Koko Pimentel. None of the ballot boxes opened by the SET yielded anything. They were totally empty.”
Pimentel’s lawyer explained: “while we may not be able to get a 100 percent nullification of the Zubiri votes in the four municipalities of Maguindanao as they would be subjected to strenuous investigation and revision, we can be assured of a 100 percent nullification of Zubiri’s 31,000 vote lead over Koko in Sultan Kudarat and that would be enough to overtake Zubiri’s lead of roughly 18,000 votes,” De Lima pointed out. Daily Tribune

Maguindanao ballots filled in banana farm

Philippines bogus President Gloria Arroyo has consistent negative trust ratings since the power grab in 2001. In fact she was rejected by the majority of the Filipino electorate in 2004 presidential election. The rubber stamp Philippine Congress proclaimed her the “winner”? contrary to massive and systematic electoral fraud in Mindanao, Sulu, Cebu, Pampamga, Pangasisnan and Ilocos Sur. All protest and anomalies by the opposition were merely NOTED by her political allies in the joint congress vote canvassing. The repeat of 2004 electoral fraud is happening in Maguindanao, Lanao, Sulu and Cotabato. The resignation of Comelec Commissionaire Rene Sarmiento as Maguindanao poll investigator can be interpreted as, he can no longer stomach Malacanang’s dirty works. Perhaps he cannot produce thru hocus focus millions of votes in favor of losing TU bets.
The result of the senatorial race in favor of the opposition reflects the true sentiments of the Filipino people. Filipinos want her out. In her own turf, Pamapanga province two of GMA allies were castigated and rebuked by a crusading priest. Malacanang and the Comelec are desperate to change the outcome of election results in Moslem Mindanao regions thru massive and systematic electoral fraud in favor of Gloria Arroyo’s Team Unity. Evil Gloria Arroyo and her trusted dog Benjamin Abalos are inviting people’s uprising. Rebellion is justified if discredited and abusive government rams their agenda against the will of its citizens. It’s not right to send senators in the halls of congress without a popular mandate. Filipino patriots must protect sacred votes at all cost.



Maguindanao ballots
filled in banana farm
Teachers’ lament: ‘Will it always be like this?’

Malaya BY DENNIS GADIL

FOUR teachers surfaced yesterday to confirm that in a Maguindanao town, armed men operating in a banana farm filled up official ballots with names of Team Unity candidates.

The teachers, accompanied by re-electionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson at the Genuine Opposition headquarters in Makati City, served as Board of Election Inspectors in Pagalungan town, which has 12 barangays with at least 10,000 registered voters.

One of the teachers, Abdul (not his real name), said they were escorted by armed men to a remote area outside Libang town on the morning of May 14. He said they had just collected ballot boxes from the municipal hall in Pagalungan.

He said Provincial Election Supervisor Eliza Gazmin was inside the municipal hall when they were "abducted."

He said they thought the armed men, some in military jackets and jeans, were their military escorts to the polling precinct in Buliok.

He said they rode a van and then a pump boat, which took them to a remote place of banana stands.

"Pagkaahon namin sa pumpboat, lahat ng cell namin kinuha. Pinatay ang cell phone. Doon kami sa sagingan. Pinabuksan sa amin ang ballot box. Sila na bahala sumulat. Pinabayaan namin, takot kami kasi armado," he said.

Abdul recalled that the names of Cesar Montano and Rep. Prospero Pichay were on the official ballots.

He said the armed men were aided by companions already in the area.

He said there were more than 100 election inspectors in the banana farm that election morning.

He said their other colleagues are also willing to testify.

The teachers said they were taken behind the Montawal municipal hall at around 3 p.m. and told to wait until nightfall.

They were then transferred to another government office in Shariff Aguak and were told to start filling up the election returns (ERs). A female teacher said they spent three days and three nights preparing the ERs.

They said a certain Mohammad Andoy, a former president of the Association of Barangay Chairmen, accompanied them from Montawal to Shariff Aguak.

One female witness said that on May 17 at 11:45 p.m., they were sent to the office of Gazmin for the proclamation of the winners. The results were 12-0 in favor of the TU ticket.

They said Gazmin administered the proclamation even if only four barangays had been canvassed. Votes from eight more barangays still had to be counted.

The four teachers were told to keep quiet and received P3,000 each for their "cooperation."

"Instruction nila, sabi nila pagbalik sa area, kailangan close mouth. Walang salita na pangontra sa kanila. Yan ang order nila, order is an order," one of the teachers said.

"Actually our role was only to open the ballot boxes and sign the tampered documents. We were fed enough and paid also for our cooperation," another teacher-witness said.

"Kung hindi kami lalantad, habambuhay ganito na lang lagi. Noong 2004, kahit may dayaan, at least sa polling precincts. Ngayong 2007, grabe na, sa sagingan na ang botohan," he said.

Another female witness said: "Para tumigil ang kalokohan (kaya kami lumabas). Kaming teacher ang kawawa, tapos wala kaming maano diyan. Kami, for the sake of the people. Kawawa ang tao na walang katapusan ang paghihirap nila."

The four witnesses appealed to media to hide their real identities to protect their families in Maguindanao.

Abdul said he could identify some of the armed men because they did not bother to hide their faces.

The witnesses said a friend, a known supporter of Lacson, arranged their coming out.

"Doon kami nagkita sa Davao," one of the witnesses said.

Abdul said their other colleagues who witnessed the election fraud are executing their affidavits and are also ready to come out.

He said it was expensive to bring them all in Manila.

Lacson said the surfacing of the four witnesses boosted his plan to file a petition to declare a failure of elections in Maguindanao province.

"They are going to appear before an executive session of Comelec to support my petition to declare failure of elections in Maguindanao. Worried lang sila sa safety nila," Lacson said.

The National Board of Canvassers (NBC) ordered the re-canvassing of the municipal certificates of canvass (MCOCs) of North and South Cotabato after their Provincial Election Supervisors (PES) failed to appear despite summons.

Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos ordered that new sets of provincial board of canvassers (PBOCs) for the two provinces be created after PES Lilian Radam (South Cotabato) and Yogie Maritzar (North Cotabato) could not be located.

Leila de Lima, counsel for Alan Peter Cayetano, said that the entries in the Koronadal City COC are different from the ones listed in the provincial statement of votes (SOV).

Among the affected candidates are Edgardo Angara (20,008 city COC; 30,008 provincial SOV), Joker Arroyo (16,697; 26,697), Michael Defensor (11,456; 21,456), Loren Legarda (37,711; 40,711), Vic Magsaysay (8,663; 18,663), Tessie Oreta (5,564; 15,564), Prospero Pichay (10,422; 20,422), Ralph Recto (14,506; 28,506), Tito Sotto (7,174; 17,174) and Juan Miguel Zubiri (21,813; 7,183).

The South Cotabato re-canvassing is set today. The PBOC is headed by Nelia Aureaus.

The date for the North Cotabato re-canvassing, headed by Jovencio Balanquit, has yet to be set.

Discrepancies were also manifested by opposition counsel in the COC of North Cotabato.

De Lima said the absence of Radam and Maritzar is an indication of guilt.

Rex Robles, counsel for Antonio Trillanes IV, said the two should be cited for contempt.

Romulo Macalintal, an administration lawyer, said they will not oppose any motion from the opposition as long as the allegations are supported by concrete evidence and a formal petition.

The NBC also set aside the controversial COC from Maguindanao after the members of the municipal Board of Canvassers (MBOC), who were summoned last Friday, failed to appear.

Abalos said the MBOC members, including Maguindanao provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol, might be culpable for contempt of court if they fail to explain their absence.

The NBC has also ordered the creation of a new set of provincial board of canvassers to determine whether the municipal certificates of canvass are still viable to be re-canvassed after the counsel for the opposition questioned and petitioned for the exclusion of the provincial board of canvassers. – With Gerard Naval
Related Links:

Where there’s smoke there’s fire
Lanao Del Sur Special Elections
Classic case of dagdag-dagdag
Philippine opposition warns of brewing crisis over vote-rigging allegations

‘Blatant’ cheating in Sulu exposed

The deliberate stalling tactic to delay the proclamation winning senatorial candidates is a reminiscent of 2004 fraudulent presidential election. Malacanang and elections chief manipulator Benjamin Abalos are cooking the DEVIL’S RECIPE-electoral fraud. There’s strong proof that systematic cheating in Maguindanao, Lanao and Sulu in favor of Gloria’s TUTA and yet Comelec chief Abalos have no enthusiasm to investigate alleged election irregularities. The presence of ex-generals Lomibao and Palparan and election operators in Lanao Del Sur special elections may have something to do with devil’s recipe. Malacanang is determined the entry of additional 3 TU bets in the magic 12 by hook and by crook and this is an invitation of an uprising. Gloria Arroyo’s bogus presidency is a by-product of massive cheating in Mindanao.


‘Blatant’ cheating in Sulu exposed
Election officials accused of collusion

BY DENNIS GADIL

A LAWYER for the Genuine Opposition yesterday said poll cheating was so blatant in Sulu province that even the incumbent congressman and the governor actively participated in rigging the results.

"We have witnesses to prove (that) on May 13, lahat ng ballots filled-up na ng tao ng mga pulitiko, kasama ang Comelec municipal election supervisor, (as) per instruction of the provincial election supervisor," Diego Palomares, a former judge, mayor and assemblyman, said in a media briefing at the GO headquarters in Makati City.

He added: "We have documents to support, walang election sa Luuk, Kalingalan-Caluang at Tungkil."

Palomares said a policeman who executed an affidavit even claimed seeing Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan and Rep. Munir Arbison personally supervising the filling up of ballots and election returns (ERs) on the eve of Election Day.

"Ang incumbent Rep. Munir Arbison, kasama ang provincial Gov. Sakur Tan, pumasok sa municipal hall where the ballots and election paraphernalia were stored. They took control and supervised the filling up of ballots," Palomares said, quoting the affidavit of the policeman whom he refused to identify.

He said Arbison, a re-electionist congressman who represents the second district of Sulu, and the wife of Tan, Hajja, even personally filled up the ballots.

Palomares said in Kalingalan-Caluang in Sulu, a barangay chairman spearheaded the filling up of ballots from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. of May 14 or hours before the opening of polling precincts.

Palomares said he and his son, Dunhill, a law student in Davao City, were able to obtain the affidavits of more than a hundred voters and watchers who attested that no actual voting took place in the second district of Sulu which has at least 100,000 voters.

He said the affidavits run from A to U.

Sulu’s second district is composed of 10 municipalities including Luuk town where Alan Peter Cayetano and Benigno Aquino III got zero votes.

Palomares said would-be voters were shooed away by the regional Comelec officials during Election Day and were told that they have already voted.

Palomares said the voters also affixed their own thumb marks on the affidavits as proof that the thumb marks found on the ballots were not theirs.

The GO lawyer said they worked on the affidavits for four days. Palomares said the witnesses are willing to come forward.

Palomares said more than a hundred voters who were already working in Sabah, Malaysia were also able to "vote" with the others voting for them.

He said he witnessed election fraud in Sulu but he was only told by the perpetrators, some of whom were board of election inspectors, to go ahead and sue them.

"Yung ibang (watcher) na nagrereklamo, binibigyan nila ng balota at sinasabihan, ‘sige ilagay mo kung sino’ng gusto mo’ para matahimik ka lang," he said.

Palomares stressed that the corrupt BEIs and Comelec officials should be charged with electoral sabotage.

Re-electionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson said they will use the affidavits of the voters and watchers as basis in filing charges against Comelec officials in Sulu before the Ombudsman. Lacson said the case will be filed Monday.

"Comelec na lang yata ang hindi nakakaalam na may widespread cheating. Now we have two witnesses," Lacson said.

Lacson said his group will provide security to Palomares and his son.

Lacson and GO spokesman Adel Tamano showed a footage of policemen from the Regional Mobile Group (RMG) shooing away watchers from a polling precinct in Ganasi, Lanao del Sur.

The policemen took over the counting and even personally tallied the votes.

Tamano said the watchers were allowed to return only after some hours and were told to just sign the ERs, indicating that the counting was over.

As of Thursday, the Comelec had canvassed 88 percent of the votes and hopes to wind up its tally Friday.

Comelec has finished counting all 154 certificates of canvass (COC) from overseas absentee voting, and 104 COCs from local and local absentee voting for a total of 258 COCs.

The Comelec, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers ordered the second deferment of the COCs from Maguindanao.

The NBC arrived at the decision at the conclusion of arguments between Provincial Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol, administration lawyer Romulo Macalintal and opposition lawyers.

"With the admission of Bedol that none from opposition was present, none of copies for dominant minority has been furnished, considering the number of zeros, the board has resolved to defer the canvassing of the COC from Maguindanao," chairman Benjamin Abalos said.

Abalos said they will require the presence of other election personnel from the municipalities, BEIs and the province to give a hand in explaining the "step-by-step" conduct of canvassing in the whole province.

Bedol appeared before the NBC after his presence was required by the board when the reading of Maguindanao COCs was deferred last Tuesday.

The COCs revealed that Team Unity swept the senatorial race with Luis Singson in No. 1.

Seven GO candidates got zero votes. They are Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, Alan Peter Cayetano, Nikki Coseteng, Panfilo Lacson, John Osmeña, Sonia Roco and Antonio Trillanes.

Francis Escudero was at 13th place followed by Manny Villar and Loren Legarda. Aquilino Pimentel III was at 17th place.

Bedol failed to recount the procedure that the provincial canvassers went through after it was questioned by opposition lawyers.

He also admitted that he is still in possession of the ER copies of the dominant minority party as well as that of the Namfrel as there was no one who claimed it. – With Gerard Naval . MALAYA .

Related Links:
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Davao del Sur cheating
Davao City Vote Padding
Lanao del Sur election returns transfered to a hotel by Garci men

Comelec is responsible for failure of elections

It’s not failure of elections in some parts of the country, but, its failure of the independent electoral body-COMELEC to conduct fair and clean elections. Massive cheating, vote-buying, intentional disfranchisement of voters, ballot snatching, tampering of election results, terrorism and intimidation are deliberately planned to achieve GMA’s political victory by hook and by crook. Comelec is the extension arm of GMA cheating machine in conspiracy with rogue top military officers. The repeat of 2004 massive fraud is in place. Filipino patriots must stop this Mindanao frenzy.

The usual alibi by Comelec chief Abalos when his men hands caught in cookie jar: ‘HONEST MISTAKE’. No Sir! It’s deliberate and intentional. The fraudulent results in Maguindanao, Lanao, Davao City, Sulu, Zambales and elsewhere need a deeper investigation. Electoral sabotage is a crime against the Filipino people. Fraud witnesses can not come openly due to fear of their lives and safety of their families. They don’t trust the Comelec because it’s closely identified with Jose Pidal and Gloria Arroyo. Comelec has a credibility problem after the Hello Garci political scam. Malacanang surrogate congressional candidate Manny Pacquiao was KO'ed by 98 pounder Magnolia's solid bolo punch in General Santos City, South Cotabato.

Is it true that Comelec chief Abalos had been paid P200 million to install Ben Dy as Isabela governor? Malacanang's dirty hands are all over the place from Batanes Is. up to Tawi-Tawi Is. COMELEC REALLY STINKS!

‘Cat’s paws used for ER thumbmarks, Namfrel says

GO bares massive fraud in Lanao

By Jojo Arazas and Angie M. Rosales

Daily Tribune 05/24/2007

Massive electoral cheating in administration bailiwicks, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) can no longer be ignored — not even by the Com-mission on Elections (Comelec), as the body, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers yesterday was forced to defer the canvassing of votes from Sulu, given that there were massive erasures in the certificates of canvass (CoC), which also showed that two Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial bets, Alan Peter Cayetano and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino lll had zero votes from the town of Luuk while nuisance candidate Joselito “Juju” Cayetanoobtained 187 votes.

Alan Cayetano’s lawyer, Leila From page 1

de Lima, questioned Vidzfar Amil Julie, provincial election supervisor of Sulu, on the “noted unauthenticated superimpositions on figures” in the CoC which clearly bore no initials from the poll officers who made the erasures.

At the same time, GO and the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), in separate press conferences, presented their evidence, consisting of video footage and tampered election returns marking the massive election cheating in the province of Lanao.

They sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Comelec on these issues.

Lanao del Norte chief legal counsel for GO, lawyer Subejano, in a briefing at the GO Headquarters in Makati City, showed media video footage which he said he personally recorded where three ballot boxes from the municipalities of Maigo, Bacolod and Kauswagan were seen as having been tampered with, as the seals of envelopes containing the statements of votes (SoV) and CoC inside the ballot boxes were still wet and tampered with, adding that the seals might have been removed and then pasted again.

For its part, Namfrel showed media election documents that had cat’s paws serving as thumbmarks and asked the Comelec to segregate the votes in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Sulu pending an investigation on reported voting irregularities in the provinces.

Lawyer Howard Calleja, legal counsel of Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), said the Comelec should conduct an executive session to get accounts of witnesses on poll fraud.

Subejano said that in one village in Maigo town, he was surrounded by a group of people after he tried to question the canvassing of ballots. He urged the Comelec to stop the canvassing of votes from the three municipalities.

Maigo has an estimated 48,000 to 50,000 registered voters, Bacolod has 14,000 while Kauswagan has 12,000 to 13,000.

“The boxes were forcibly opened. It is very evident that envelops were opened and pasted back as evidenced by the wet paste,” Subejano said.

He disclosed that in some precincts in Tubod, also in Lanao del Norte, he personally witnessed how the words Team Unity were credited to each administration senatorial candidate. “When they were appreciating the votes, I noticed the election officials crediting to each administration candidate votes from ballots where the words Team Unity were written instead of the names of the candidates,” Subejano said.

GO senatorial bet Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel yesterday threatened to file a case of “electoral sabotage” a new crime that is penalized with life imprisonment, as stated in the election law which was passed by Congress in January, against Davao Provincial Board of Canvassers after his watchers noticed his votes were shaved by around 85,000 and added to administration candidate Ralph Recto, with another 70,000 added to TU bet Luis “Chavit” Singson, even as the Comelec officials claimed it was a “clerical error.”

“This is a mockery of the election system. The culprits should be punished,” he said.

GO reelectionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is assured of a new mandate, yesterday rallied behind the planned filing of electoral sabotage charges by Pimentel.

Lacson urged Pimentel to include not only poll fraud operators but also officials of the Comelec and even candidates involved in the conspiracy of cheating, saying it is high time to put a stop to the “culture of cheating in this country.”

“I would love to see a Comelec official and a candidate, winner or loser, spend the rest of their lifetime in jail. The higher (the official), the better. The cheating culture in our country must stop,” he said.

Recto was quick to clear his name, denying any knowledge in what he claimed as an inadvertent addition of votes to him.

“It came as a complete surprise to us,” Recto’s chief of staff, lawyer Aristotle Liwanag said.

Recto said he is amenable to have this probed by the Comelec and the Namfrel to determine whether this was a clerical error.

Recto’s camp raised suspicions that such allegations could be aimed at sabotaging the re-electionist’s candidacy to put a cloud of doubt on the mandate he will receive from the people.

With the numerous reports on massive cheating anew in the recently-concluded electoral exercise, Lacson said those involved in the poll fraud operations in the May 14 elections deserve the distinction of being the first to be charged with the relatively new crime of electoral sabotage

Lacson himself appeared to be a victim of such cheating in Zamboanga del Sur, where he placed fourth or fifth in the tally of the Namfrel. Namfrel then had tallied 46.08 percent of the votes, and Lacson got 60,812 votes.

But after a long delay, the final provincial canvass figures showed Lacson got 80,880 votes, ranking only 15th and was overtaken by the TU “tailender” candidates.

Sec. 42 of Republic Act 9369, the new election law, defines electoral sabotage as a special election offense that penalizes any person, election inspector or canvasser who tampers with the votes with life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the Namfrel chairman in Marawi City also yesterday exposed more poll fraud evidence in Lanao del Sur towns, presenting some elections returns (ERs) containing marks that even the naked eye could see came from either dogs or cats, and certainly not humans.

This use of thumb marks from cats’ paws were also resorted to in 2004, as shown in many ERs in Mindanao by the opposition in 2004, which the opposition congressmen were also trying to present before the House justice committee in 2005 during the impeachment bid against President Arroyo.

“Look at the thumb marks. They are much too small. Either they used their little finger, or used cats to fill up the space for thumb marks,” Namfrel-Marawi chief Mama Palawan said as he bared the ERs to reporters during a press briefing at La Salle Greenhill in San Juan.

There were also other ERs which contained double entries, with the number of votes higher than the number of voters.

Also explained were the many instances of fraud in Lanao del Sur province where “vote manipulation” is usually done by separating the canvass of votes for the local and the senatorial bets.

The Comelec placed the province of Shariff Kabunsuan in ARMM under its control, and will be sending a new head of the Provincial Board of Canvassers for the province.

Lawyer Jocelyn de Mesa, Comelec Election Supervisor for Parañaque will be flying to the province of Shariff Kabunsuan today, to head the canvassing of the CoC, as the former chairman of the PBOC in the province refused to canvass the CoC due to security reasons.

“Because of security considerations, no one wants to accept the position of head of PBOC so we have this lady who is gutsy enough to accept responsibility. It takes a woman to accept the responsibility. There was a previous lawyer but because of security consideration he backed out”, Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, in charge for the ARMM said, addding that De Mesa will be assisted by Gregorio Lardizabal and Emmanuel Ignacio, Comelec regional directors from Luzon, in the canvassing.

Sarmiento added that these officers have been instructed to finish the canvassing that has already piled up from different municipalities.

“The instruction is to complete the canvassing as soon as possible and to ensure that this will go smoothly, we declare Shariff Kabunsuan under Comelec control. Definitely Marines will be deployed”, he added.

Chairman Benjamin Abalos stressed that there is no need for the transfer of the canvassing in the province. “Let us prove the sovereignty of this government against lawlessness. What are our police, what is our military doing? We cannot rely on them for protection?”

Sarmiento will also be leaving today for Lanao del Sur, and after the special elections will proceed to Maguindanao for the investigation of the Comelec task force that will probe on the alleged election irregularities in Maguindanao. Namfrel and the PPCRV have asked to be part of the task force.

Comelec is set to proclaim senatorial candidates during the weekend. According to Abalos, Comelec will attempt to repeat the feat it did in 2004, where the commission proclaimed the winning candidates in 10 days.

With Kristine Torres

Massive Cheating In Chavit's Country

Massive cheating in Ilocos Sur province is nothing new. Comelec officials, school teachers, district prosecutors and municipal treasurers are helpless to stop electoral fraud. Influential warlord rules!
Vice-Governor Deogracias Victor “DV” Savellano, a candidate of the Lakas-CMD-TU won over its opponent Efren “Rambo” Rafanan of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP)-UNO and independent candidate Roque Sison. Savellano garnered 132,656 votes over Rafanan who got 131,264 votes. Gov.-elect Savellano won a margin of 1,392 votes against Rafanan.

Chavit behind manufacture of votes, cheating’

Bishop, priests condemn Ilocos Sur poll fraud

Daily Tribune 05/23/2007

Priests in Ilocos Sur, supported by their bishop, Nueva Segovia Archbishop Ernesto Salgado, yesterday condemned “the dirty conduct” of the 2007 elections in Ilocos Sur, pointing to the massive vote-buying and vote-selling, along with what they called “opponent-buying” for an unopposed candidacy.

In a statement, the group of priests also backed calls demanding a recount and recanvass of votes at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila.

Sources from Ilocos Sur told the Tribune yesterday that while the counting and canvassing were ongoing, with gubernatorial candidate Efren Rafanan of the Genuine Opposition way ahead of his rival, Vice Governor Savellano, Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson, along with his heavily armed bodyguards, was busy ordering mayors and even election officers in several towns where the canvassing was still ongoing, not to canvass the votes cast by the Ilocos Sur electorate, and ensure that whatever town Savellano was losing to Rafanan, the towns where canvassing was just starting would simply add the votes of Rafanan to Savellano, while canvassing in other towns and cities were allegedly ordered by Chavit to stop the canvassing — until such time that the election returns (ERs) could be replaced.

In the town of Candon, there was no canvassing at all,” Rafanan told the Tribune yesterday in a telephone interview. He said that whatever was the lead of Rafanan over Savellano, which according to Rafanan, the precinct count even then already showed a Rafanan lead of some close to 10,000 votes, would be offset, through the manufacture of votes in Candon town.

In other areas, such as Cabugao, there were witnesses’ reports of ballot-snatching and switching, he said.

In San Vicente town, where Rafanan was also leading, his watchers were all harassed and made to leave the canvassing area.

“Three mayors who are with me already tipped me off early, saying that Chavit was personally calling all the mayors and ordering them not to make me win, or else,’ Rafanan said, adding that even the election officers were threatened by Chavit and his men.

“They were so scared of Chavit, that they did what he wanted them to do,” he stressed.

Rafanan also pointed out that City Election officer Fidel Fines was placed in the top seat just a day before by the Comelec, “precisely to ensure that he would cheat for Chavit’s candidate (Savellano) by shaving my votes.”

While the canvassing was going on in other towns, Rafanan recounted, Chavit went on the air, telling one and all that the figures he was giving out, which were manufactured figures, were the results of the gubernatorial, congressional and gubernatorial races, even when there was still no canvassing of votes ongoing,

Other sources in Ilocos Sur, whom the Tribune contacted yesterday, confirmed the allegations of Rafanan, but also said that there was as well, cheating done in the senatorial count, again with Chavit ordering everyone to ensure that he gets the highest number of votes in Ilocos Sur.

It was alleged by the sources that even in Ilocos Sur, Singson was being repudiated by his constituents.

The priests and their bishop publicly stated that they observed the following means to thwart the will of the Ilocos Sur voters.

They stated that the Election Returns (ERs) were delivered without any seal. This was confirmed by the the Nassa-Namfrel team.

Page 3 of the ER from precinct 5, Brgy. Ballaigi, Sinait, was substituted.

The number of valid ballots was greater than number of registered voters.

They added the reports of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voters (PPCRV) poll watchers that said they were not given the Citizens’ Accredited Arm copy at the precinct. Instead, they were required to secure these from the municipality.

They also noted the blank and incomplete data on voters and ballots in a number of ERs.

There was also a delay in canvassing in Candon City and in the provincial Canvass, as well as reports of suspension of canvasing in several towns where Rafanan was winning.

In the town of Candon, where Rafanan said he was winning by some 6,000 votes, the certificates of canvass (CoC) were found to have major erasures in the gubernatorial post which were, however, not countersigned.

They also noted that the Narvacan CoC’s total votes were not written in words, as required by law and poll rules.

Rafanan was earlier reported to be leading Savellano, Chavit’s candidate and said in Ilocos to be the “front man” of Chavit in the yearly diversions of the tobacco excise tax during the time Chavit was out of his gubernatorial position, and “then suddenly, Chavit was giving all the orders to the election officers, who all obeyed him.”

In denouncing the massive electoral fraud in Ilocos Sur, the priests protested against the “injustice done to our people by the desecration of their right to choose and elect their leaders.”

They added that they also condemn political dynasties.

The Singsons have cornered the posts in Ilocos Sur, with sons, cousins and other relatives taking all the elective seats.

The priests blessed by their bishop, said in their statement that they support “all moves to demand the recounting/recanvassing of votes at the Comelec Manila at the fastest possible time to ensure truth and justice as well as confidence in our election processes.”

Additionally, they said they commit themselves to the ongoing political education and mobilization of the people under our care, geared toward political transformation.”

Signatures were affixed last May 21 at the Aula de Nuestra Señora de Caridad, at the archbishop’s residence in Vigan City. NCO

Comelec, Arroyo administration both liable for questionable May 14 polls

Ex-generals: Fabricated documents product of ‘Mercury Rising’

DE FACTO MAFIA GOVERNMENT
Bantay Boto special operatives should “physically isolate” known fraud operators before damage is done. I think warning is not enough. Specific action is must during critical times. There’s no rule of law in the Philippines. The Gloria Arroyo government is based on de facto on Mafia structures. It‘s riddled with corruption from grassroots level up to Malacanang Palace. Government contracts and privatization measures are manipulated in favor of cronies and close political allies. Crooks are being protected and promoted to key government post. The criminal justice system is rotten and the collapse of law enforcement. The illegitimate Arroyo government failed to deliver justice to its people and contributes to the widespread human rights violations in the country. Political killings, torture, disappearance, abduction, illegal arrest and intimidation are shades of Mafia gangland perpetuated by rogue cops and mercenary soldiers. The latest incident, a schoolhouse in Taysan, Batangas was deliberately razed by protector of the people (cops) leaving two teachers on election duty burned alive.
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Ex-generals: Fabricated documents product of ‘Mercury Rising’

GMA’s Garcis padding TU votes by 1M in 5 Mindanao provinces

By Sherwin C. Olaes

Daily Tribune 05/21/2007

An election watchdog composed of retired military and police officers and generals yesterday warned the public that the Arroyo administration is set to come up with pre-computed and pre-accomplished statements of votes (SoVs) and certificates of canvas (CoCs) at the municipal and provincial levels, where alleged dagdag-bawas (vote padding-vote shaving) enabled President Arroyo’s Team Unity (TU) senatorial candidates to post what the group described as a “dubious” one-million lead against their rivals from the Genuine Opposition (GO) in five provinces in the country’s southern Mindanao region.

In a statement released to the Tribune, retired Navy Commodore Ismael Aparri, a convenor of Bantay Boto, charged that the release of “accomplishments” by the Chief Executive’s operators was a fulfillment of “Operation Plan (Oplan) Mercury Rising,” the orchestrated cheating operations of Malacañang that may ensure victory for administration senatorial and congressional candidates against the GO camp of detained President Joseph Estrada.

Aparri identified the five Mindanao provinces as Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sharif Kabunsuan, Sultan Kudarat and Surigao del Sur, where, according to him, the results of the May 14 mid-term vote are being”doctored” by the President’s “poll fraud operators.”?

“From the fraudulent pattern, we can see immediately the devilish intent of Mrs. Arroyo’s fraud operators. The 2007 registered voters from the Oplan Mercury Rising provinces were from eight to 20 percent higher than 2004; the voter turnout was much more than the 2004 voting turnout; the votes garnered by the administration candidates in the provinces were consistently 50 to 100 percent higher than those from the Genuine Opposition,” the Bantay Boto convenor said.

Aparri stressed in these five provinces alone, the lead of the TU senatorial bets over their GO rivals is almost one million.

“Bantay Boto is appealing to the fraud operators not to push through with this plan. Do not do it. It is not worth it. We’re also serving this notice to the fraud operators and their accomplices. We know you. Our eyes and ears are tuned to you. Perpetrators will be dealt with accordingly,” he said.

Aparri said the pre-computed and pre-accomplished SoVs and CoC, a product of the Malacanang-initiated cheating operations, will show an unusual increase in the 2007 registered voters compared to 2004, from eight percent to 20 percent in these areas.

“Just compare these percentages to the population average growth of 2.5 percent annually,” he added.

The retired commodore also charged the declaration of “failure of elections”?in some areas in Mindanao was plotted by the administration so the holding of special elections there can be justified.

Aparri said the original Oplan Mercury Rising was intended by Malacanang to offset the opposition leads that are expected from Metro Manila and the country’s main island of Luzon.

“The idea is to push the senatorial bids of (TU senatorial bets) Rep. (Juan Miguel) Zubiri, (former presidential chief of staff Michael) Defensor and (Rep. Prospero) Pichay, among others, into the winning circle. Even if they will land in the last slots, the magic number to add is at least two million votes in Oplan Mercury Rising provinces, roughly an average of 100,000-vote lead in about 20 provinces,”? he added.

According to Aparri, reports indicate that these leads are already pre-computed and being written in the SoVs and CoC.

“These (figures) will be released on a staggered sequence next week from the Oplan Mercury Rising provinces to the Comelec (Commission on Elections) for senatorial canvassing. Note that the same pattern in the 2004 elections where (the leads of opposition standard-bearer and movie icon) Fernando Poe Jr. in Luzon and Metro Manila were wiped out when the votes from Bohol, Cebu and Iloilo were canvassed, and the final GMA (Mrs. Arroyo’s initials) lead of one million was completed when the votes from special elections and the ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) provinces were finally submitted, as the last provinces to be canvassed,” Aparri said.

A ranking Comelec official who gained notoriety during the alleged massive cheating in the 2004 presidential elections has been identified as one of the “Garci boys” apparently involved in the Mindanao fraud in the May 14-mid-term vote.

Rey Sumalipao, Comelec regional election supervisor for ARMM, has been pinpointed by an election officer in Lanao del Sur as the one who allegedly ordered the indefinite suspension of canvassing of election returns (ERs) in the senatorial race.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. also yesterday called for the relief of Sumalipao from his post.

“Undue delays” in the canvassing of votes is the latest alleged tack being employed in the cheating operations as opposition leaders also yesterday noted reports of almost “simultaneous” incidents where election officials leave their posts while others could not explain the suspension of canvassing.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a reelectionist running under the GO banner, cited reports on the “unnecessary delays,” this time in Quezon City (Metro Manila), San Jose del Monte in Bulacan province, four towns in Sultan Kudarat province, including Isulan town.

Lacson said similar unnecessary delays have also been reported in Albay province and its capital Legazpi City in the Bicol Region.

He noted that in the four towns in Sultan Kudarat, election officers had abandoned their posts.

“It is possible that plans are afoot and the election officers are playing along,” Lacson said.

He urged poll watchdogs to make a test case of alleged cheating in Maguindanao province, where a teacher had come forward to spill the beans.

The teacher, during an interview on radio last Saturday, claimed that teachers were made to fill in blanks in ballots for TU senatorial candidates and that schoolchildren were made to print thumb marks on the ballots.

“We should see someone jailed for this. If a handwriting expert confirms that only two to three filled in the blanks in the ballots in the area, we’ll have an open-and-shut case,” Lacson said.

He also urged his fellow GO candidates to instruct their staff in keeping close watch on the areas he had mentioned, including some parts of Metro Manila.

Lacson said the GO is monitoring the race to the 10th to 12th slots, where cheating may alter the results.

In a so-called election hot spot, Muntinlupa City (Metro Manila), where incumbent Rep. Ruffy Biazon is being challenged by former television executive and lawyer Ricardo “Dong” Puno in the congressional contest, three members of the board of canvassers had been “hospitalized,” causing the suspension of the counting.

“This is the first time that three canvassers are hospitalized at the same time. What’s next?” Biazon asked.

Pimentel asked Sumalipao to explain on the undue delay in the canvassing of senatorial ERs in Lanao del Sur, an ARMM province.

Sumalipao, at the height of the congressional probe on the “Hello Garci” tapes, was identified by some witnesses as the one mentioned in the wiretapped conversations supposedly receiving instructions from former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, the alleged poll operator for the administration in the 2004 polls.

“Garci” has since been attached to Garcillano’s name.

As revealed by the Lanao del Sur election officer during the television interview, Sumalipao allegedly gave the order to indefinitely suspend the canvassing of the senatorial ERs after the canvassing of the ERs for the congressional and local-government races in various municipalities of the province.

Such order, Pimentel said, is a gross violation of the Omnibus Election Code, which provides that the tabulation of the results of the senatorial, congressional and local elections should be done simultaneously or continuously.

In fact, he added, the law also provides that the results of the senatorial elections should be tallied by the board of canvassers ahead of the results of the congressional and local polls.

Pimentel said the delayed canvassing of the senatorial ERs should not be tolerated under any circumstance because this is part of the modus operandi to manipulate the results of the senatorial contest to favor candidates of the administration.

According to him, the GO legal team will ask the Comelec, as national board of canvassers, not to tabulate the CoC from Maguindanao, supposedly showing a 12-0 score in the senatorial contest in favor of the TU candidates, unless allegations of large-scale electoral fraud are resolved.

Pimentel said the reported sweep is incredible and doubtful in view of allegations that ERs were falsified and votes for TU candidates were padded while votes for GO candidates were shaved.

He also noted that while the media reported poor turnout of voters in several towns in Maguindanao, the provincial election results reflected that 95 percent of voters had cast their ballots.

Pimentel cited reports that no actual voting took place in many parts of Maguindanao, including those controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Saying practically all the rules of fair play and transparency were violated in the Maguindanao polls, he denounced the refusal of local election officials to allow volunteer watchers of the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections to witness the canvassing of votes at the municipal and provincial levels and to obtain copies of ERs, as mandated by law.

The answer to whether the TU bets swept their GO rivals in Maguindanao may not be known now as the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) also yesterday announced that they will no no longer include in their national quick count the results from that province.

According to Namfrel Chairman Eduardo Go, they came up with the decision after election officials in Maguindanao allegedly refused to release copies of ERs to their volunteers.

Go admitted that their decision could affect the ranking of the senatorial candidates.

Maguindanao has 289,000 registered voters.

Namfrel saidt suspicions further grows on the so-called TU sweep with the revelation of another watchdog, Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente), that no actual voting occurred in Maguindanao.

Lawyer Carlos Medina, Lente co-convenor, also yesterday told reporters at the Namfrel headquarters in Greenhills, San Juan (Metro Manila) that on May 14, the teachers used the signatures and thumb marks of students for the ballots.

“The Comelec…on its own should do an investigation to find out if this is true or not…they should investigate to find out what really happened…” Medina said as he also appealed to the Comelec to set aside “technical requirements” such as affidavits from witnesses because the teachers would afraid to prepare such documents.

Malacañang also yesterday dismissed the allegations of the teacher and, at the same time, vented its ire on Estrada.

“It is very easy for them (GO) to say there had been cheating, and that they have witnesses but our question is this, do they really have concrete evidence against us?”? presidential legal adviser Sergio Apostol said.

Apostol added Abalos and his five commissioners should not be swayed by tprotests being aired by the Estrada camp and focus on the counting of the votes, especially the contested Maguindanao ballots that delivered a 12-0 victory for Mrs. Arroyo’s bets.

He said the Comelec must simply junk the protests of the opposition because they are merely sourgraping after being junked by the Maguindanao electorate. Angie M. Rosales and Jojo Arazas

Poll staff filled up Maguindanao ballots

Maguindanao 12-0 TU clean sweep is highly questionable. The old sayings, when there’s smoke there’s fire. Gloria Arroyo needs more certified TUTA (puppet) in the Senate like Defensor, Pichay and Zubiri. Most likely election manipulators are targeting Aquino, Alan Cayetano, Pimentel and Trillanes in dagdag-bawas scheme. Why the Abalos’ Comelec allow this to happen? Is the discredited NAMFREL part of the conspiracy? Battery of GO-UNO lawyers may not enough to guard the true mandate of the Filipino people. Continuous peoples’ vigilance against the cheaters until the last election return (ER) is counted. Ibasura ang mga bantay salakay-COMELEC at NAMFREL!

Int’l Observers Hit Fraud, Military Intervention in Philippine Polls

Poll staff filled up Maguindanao ballots

Daily Tribune 05/20/2007

The truth will always come out somehow and the truth about Team Unity’s 12-0 victory in Maguindanao, where TU senatorial candidate Luis “Chavit” Singson topped the Senate vote, is that there was no voting in Maguindanao, and worse, the ballots and the summary of votes were filled up by teachers assigned to man the polls and thumbmarked by children even before the scheduled polls.

A participant of the wholesale Maguindano vote fraud who turned whistleblower, exposed this wholesale election fraud yesterday in an interview over radio dzRH, baring that the voting was over even before the precincts were scheduled to open.

At the same time, the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) which works alongside the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and other watchdog groups, called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to speedily probe the 12-0 votes and suspend canvassing of poll results in areas that produced the 12-0 vote, the latest of which came from Bohol and reportedly, Eastern Samar, as claimed by TU.

Reports reaching the Lente network stated that it was the teachers who wrote out the names in the ballots in Mindanao while children were also used in the cheating operations to put in the thumb marks, which explains the very tiny thumbmarks found in some copies of the election documents in Mindanao.

The Lente charges appeared to have been substantiated by a participant in the cheating operations who turned whistleblower, baring all this during an interview over radio.

The teacher, who went by the alias of “Bai,” bared the wholesale electoral fraud in Maguindanao which resulted in a 12-0 vote for the administration TU bets.

She said the fraud was done a day before the polls, or May 13.

She recounted that she and her colleagues were ordered by Maguindanao Governor Ampatuan to fill out the ballots with the names of TU candidates which were handed to them in a list. These names, with Chavit Singson’s at the top of the list, followed by TU Prospero Pichay in second place, followed by 10 more from TU, were written down as ordered on the ballots prior to election day.

They were also ordered to copy the name of Ampatuan for the gubernatorial votes.

Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader former ARMM Gov. Nur Misauri is reportedly losing heavily in the ARMM regions (see related story).

Ampatuan is the current ARMM governor.

Bai claimed during that interview that there were only three of them filling up the ballots, saying in the vernacular that they signed some of the ballots but that most of these ballots were unsigned.

She also pointed out that she, along with her companions in the cheating operations, were brought to the safehouse to fill up these ballots.

Bai also stated during the radio interview that children were rounded up and brought to place their thumb marks on the ballots.

Lente issued an urgent call for the Comelec to stop the canvassing in all these areas where a claimed 12-0 TU vote occurred.

But Comelec officials appear to be reluctant to move, with commissioners even claiming that these allegations of fraud must first be substantiated.

The earlier response of Comelec commissioner Rene Sarmiento on the Maguindano vote was that the people should understand that the Muslims have a different culture and vote differently.

Yesterday, however, the Comelec ordered the poll officers in Maguindanao to release the Election Returns to the Namfrel volunteers, and directed AMM director Ray Sumalipao to order the same to the ARMM officers.

Earlier, the votes shaved off from two Genuine Opposition senatorial candidates, Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Alan Cayetano, both of whom lost 100,000 votes each, but which were restored the next day, Comelec chief Benjamin Abalos, Sr. claimed it was not evidence of dagdag-bawas fraud, but that these were merely “clerical errors.”

It was noted, however, that only the two GO candidates’ votes were shaved and the Comelec commissioners, acting as a national canvassing board, failed to clarify whether those lost votes were added to other candidates.

Abalos pointed out that the commissioners, reading the certifications of canvass (CoC) were those who noticed the discrepancy and immediately acted on it. “If you will see how we’re doing it here, it is a commissioner reading the number of votes being validated or audited by another commissioner and in case of a difference, immediately the attention of the one reading the certificate of votes is called by the other commissioner validating”, Abalos explained.

He added that the counsels of both candidates was already told of the finding of the tabulation board, and that they had no objections to the result of the verification.

Moreover, Abalos also explained that there are several reasons that affected the number of registered voters and precincts in Iloilo City.

The counsel of GO senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel pointed out yesterday, during the canvassing of the CoCs coming from Iloilo that there was a difference in the reports from the Comelec in the number of precincts and voters in the province.

“The number of voters he was referring to was under date of March,the elections, May. You have to consider transferees who were not located before. Number two, those discoveries of people who were already dead because of the reports that came in. Three, per order of the court those who were excluded, are now included. And those who were omitted by mistake in the list of voters, that accounts for the difference, I hope people will understand that these were not done to increase or decrease the number of registered voters”, Abalos said.

He added that the number of precincts decreased because these were clustered. He noted it would be impractical to have a separate precinct that only has 30 to 40 voters, so they were clustered to mother precincts.

The Comelec commissioners, through their spokesman, James Jimenez, also berated the international poll monitors’ groups, for claiming that massive fraud marked the 2007 elections before the media, yetthey never bothered to give the Comelec their report on the alleged fraud.

He challenged them to substantiate their charges of poll fraud, before claiming fraud.

But the international monitors have already shown, on television, the video clips of these instances of poll fraud.

For its part, Malacañang yesterday challenged GO to produce evidence that President Arroyo had a hand in an alleged vote shaving and padding in favor of the Team Unity’s senatorial candidates in Maguindanao province.

In phone interviews, both presidential legal counsel Sergio Apostol and presidential legal counsel Gabriel Claudio castigated the GO camp.

Malacañang was irked over GO’s complaints that the Maguindanao 12-0 score in favor of TU was a result of a massive vote padding and shaving orchestrated by the Chief Executive.

“The President has not given any order to her men to engage in any form of cheating. Although it is true that the President gave an order for her Cabinet secretaries to campaign for her senatorial and congressional candidates in these elections, there were no orders for them to commit fraud or engage in any illegal moves,” Apostol claimed.

He challenged GO senatorial bet Panfilo “Ping” Lacson to produce evidence that the 12-0 victory in Maguindanao province was a result of Malacañang-initiated cheating operations.

“We’re challenging Lacson to come out with concrete evidence not just mere speech. How can they claim there had been cheating in Maguindanao when they don’t have any watchers, no local candidates there? Where did they get those malicious charges? They should stop dreaming and instead come out with a factual evidence,” Apostol added.

Apostol who is also a Lakas CMD regional director, an ally party of the President said they are always prepared to cooperate with the Comelec to prove that there was no cheating in Maguindanao.

“We’re open to any investigation and we would not interfere in any investigation to be done by the Comelec,” he said.

Lacson had specifically pinned Claudio as the “brain” behind the poll fraud allegedly on going.

But Claudio in a text message also yesterday defended the victory of TU in Maguindanao, in the midst of his earlier denial of engaging in electoral fraud.

“The victory of TU in Maguindanao does not mean GO candidates got zero votes in the province. It just means the electorate there favored all 12 candidates of the administration ahead of any GO candidate. Given the political culture and leadership pattern in Maguindanao, a 12-0 win for TU in the area is plausible. It is probably no more than the exercise of a shared political stand expressed through a bloc vote, as explained by provincial leaders and residents themselves,” he said.

“Nevertheless, any questions regarding the election results in the province can and should be resolved through the regular mechanisms provided by law under the supervision of Comelec,” he added. Kristine V. Torres, Sherwin C. Olaes and Tribune wires

Int’l monitors: RP polls marred by 3 G’s, cheating

The National Board of Canvassers had finally convened two days after May 14, 2007 is a delaying tactics to iron-out a “credible” dagdag-bawas scheme (vote padding and shaving). Any delay may create tension among die-hard political supporters. The center of political and economic power Metro Manila had repudiated the illegitimate Gloria Arroyo government. Mercenary election’s fraud operators are determined to thwart the true people’s mandate with the blessings from their evil patroness. Gloria Arroyo’s political survival is at stake. It appears that partisan Comelec chief Benjamin Abalos wants to gag TV-radio quick count upon the orders from Malacanang despite of signed ABS-CBN Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with STI and the COMELEC to conduct a media count. The Filipino people won’t allow massive cheating in favor of losing TUTA candidates. As expected, the Comelec has no credibility to conduct clean and honest elections. Be fair and come clean Senor Abalos. Public anger is ready to explode. Only time can tell.


Foreign poll observers: We felt safer in Afghanistan

Int’l monitors: RP polls marred by 3 G’s, cheating

By Michaela P. del Callar

Daily Tribune 05/17/2007

Malacañang and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) appear to have failed in projecting to the international community that they had conducted fair, fraud-free, peaceful and orderly elections, as accredited international monitors yesterday told reporters that elections in the country were marred by bombings, intimidation, vote-buying and cheating.
Members of the group told reporters yesterday that they witnessed two bombings, encountered two armed groups and saw election rules being openly ignored.
Money to buy votes was handed out openly. “The transactions took place very blatantly. Our presence did not deter them at all,” said Mohamad Yunus Lebai Ali, a Malaysian lecturer and one of the monitors.
The 21-member team from the Bangkok-based Asian Network For Free Elections (Anfrel) visited the six provinces of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for the May 14 midterm elections to witness the campaigning, voting and counting.
The international monitors warned that the credibility of democracy was under threat in a region where powerful families still dominate politics.
Asian poll observers showed dismay at the culture of impunity for elections, manipulation of votes, and prevalence of political violence in ARMM.
The Anfrel and the National Institute for Electoral Integrity denounced electoral fraud and the use of violence and force in ARMM to undermine the democratic process or gain votes.
“In terms of peacefulness, we all can agree that the atmosphere is not conducive for elections. In terms of security, we get it from our experience in the field. Like my colleague from Thailand, she experienced two bombing incidents in polling centers and encountered two armed groups. I do not feel physically safe. What more about the voters?” NIEI Director Ali said in yesterday’s press conference.
Ali said the 21 Anfrel observers, who were deployed to the ARMM provinces on election day, witnessed polling problems, violation of the secrecy of the vote, cheating, violence and commission of election offenses.
“From our own direct observation and our own experience we saw manipulation and the buying of votes. It’s not to say election is fair. We saw how protection took place, many cases of vote manipulation. It’s very hard to say there was no cheating up to election day,” he said.
Ali said the group observed a lot of coaching inside precincts wherein voters were being commanded to write the names of certain candidates.
“And I myself observed flying voters in truckloads with 20-25 of them coming to precincts. No security of votes,” he said, adding: “It’s not free, no individual freedom to vote candidates they like.”
Anfrel Director Somri Hananontasuk of Thailand, meanwhile, said she finds military presence in polling centers unusual and disturbing.
“There was deployment of military outside schools or voting centers. (In Thailand ), we see them (only) in (instances of) national disasters and earthquakes,” she said.
“In our country we don’t have crowded polling stations. (Here), voters talk and look at each other so (there is) no secrecy of votes. In Philippine elections there’s no secrecy,” she pointed out.
For his part, coordinator Amim Shah bin Iskandor ( Malaysia ) said he was “impressed” with the vigilance displayed by non-government election watchdogs National Movement for Free Elections and Parish Pastoral Counting for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
The Genuine Opposition’s allegations appear to have been backed up by the reports of the international monitors.
GO yesterday unearthed the alleged massive cheating being done by the administration in the ARMM which shows the two survey tail enders as the top vote getters in Mindanao: Luis Chavit Singson and Prospero Pichay.
Adel Tamano, spokesperson for GO, revealed the dreaded “cheating mode” of the administration, saying that “it’s quite obvious the elections were rigged in ARMM. It is so statistically improbable for voters to vote 12 straight if you are going to vote,” Tamano told reporters late afternoon.
According to Tamano, what was really suspicious was the fact that their top vote getter, Loren Legarda, was nowhere near the top 20 in the ARMM.
The other senatorial bets, Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Manuel Villar, Panfilo Lacson and even independent candidate Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan landed from numbers 13 to 16.
“When I was informed it was 12-0, I was surprised,” he said.
Earlier, deputy campaign spokesperson Tonypet Albano said TU is not surprised to get a 12-0 in Mindanao since they believe that the local executives will carry them and that contrary to popular belief people trust Singson.
Albano said in other areas such as Isabela and Eastern Samar the 12-0 vote for TU was also assured.
Escudero landed in the 13th spot but according to Tamano, a big difference with what can be seen as based on the Comelec tally.
It is also reported that 72 percent of the election returns have been counted in Maguindanao.
It also reported a 90 percent voter’s turn-out.
Tamano also said that in Datu Unsay there are 10,172 registered voters and 10,160 voted.
In Southern Kudarat, out of 10,999 registered voters, 10,664 voted.
Observers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand spent eight days observing pre-election situations and Election Day last May 14 throughout the six provinces of ARMM, visiting more than 500 precincts.
Anfrel recommended that the problem of impunity for election offenses must be addressed and that overspending by political candidates must be discouraged and their source of funding should be declared.
They added that the Comelec must be “more professional and needs to disqualify those who misuse their power and that local elections should be more professional and candidates who abuse their power must be disqualified.
Anfrel also said that law on modernization should be implemented in preparation for the upcoming presidential polls in 2010.
Meanwhile, with the majority of GO headed in the count for victory, opposition figures expressed fear over massive cheating by the administration’s poll operators to overturn the opposition victory in the polls.
Detained Rep. Crispin Beltran said all efforts must be exerted now to ensure that Malacañang will not be able to sneak in more of its TU candidates in the Top 12 through cheating.
Beltran said that it was already clear that Malacañang is manipulating to have GO bet Alan Peter Cayetano dropped from the winners’ circle by having votes for him invalidated on the grounds of a paltry legal technicality.
Reports that President Arroyo is now highly busy making phone calls and that there are countless incidences of Election Returns switching or theft should make the Filipino people vigilant. We must not allow a repeat of the ‘Hello, Garci’ scam and allow the Arroyo government to secure a stolen victory,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel also yesterday voiced suspicions over the very premature conceding of former Virgilio “Garci” Garcillano in the Bukidnon polls, saying that this was probably his message that he was now free to “perform” poll operations and at the same time, collect a hefty fee for his services that would more than pay for the expenses he incurred for his campaign.
Pimentel also reported that some five cheating operators who are alleged to have connections with the Comelec recently arrived in Davao City to ensure a delay in the canvassing of votes and gain more time to manipulate the election results to favor TU candidates.
Also, Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPeg), in an initial assessment, said that the voters’ turnout during the May 14 elections was the lowest in six years.
According to Prof. Bobby Tuazon, the low turnout could be attributed to widespread disenfranchisement even as he said that in the National Capital region the turnout has dropped to a low of 50 to 60 percent only.
Comelec claimed a turnout of some 70-80 percent.
Reports reaching CenPeg showed that possibly hundreds of thousands of voters were directly disenfranchised with the names of many legitimate voters missing in master lists or names found in other precincts.
He said there were also complaints of missing precincts, many master lists unreadable, delayed opening of polling precincts, and of voting marked by long queues thus preventing many voters from casting their ballots while others were harassed by soldiers and police not to vote for certain partylist groups.
He said reports culled from Task Force Poll Watch (TFPW) of Party-list groups, the PPCRV, Kontra Daya, monitoring by UP mass communication student volunteers, foreign observers missions as well as partial field reports from 30 provinces also showed that many voters complained about their names missing in master lists while groups of voters were harassed and prevented from going to their precincts. With Gerry Baldo, Jojo Arazas and AFP

Related Links
Blatant Vote-Buying, Manipulation in ARMM
12-0 for TU in Maguindanao; Singson tops Senate slate
Poll Anomaly in Maguindanao
Summary of Cases on Election Related Fraud and Violence

Malacañang’s Kill-Trillanes Plot Uncovered

AFP rogue chief General Esperon is capable of carrying-out sinister ‘Oplan Alan’. Ltsg. Trillanes victory on Monday polls is big slap to his bogus Commander-in-Chief Gloria Arroyo. God saves the Philippines!


Malacañang’s kill-Trillanes plot uncovered

Daily Tribune 05/14/2007

Supporters of Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial candidate and Navy Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes IV have revealed an alleged Malacañang assassination plot against him that will be executed when he votes in today’s mid-term elections.

Text messages from the Trillanes camp began circu-lating last Saturday, saying the Arroyo administration has devised “Oplan (Operation Plan) Alan” for the assassination of the GO senatorial bet.

The operation plan is named after Trillanes’ deceased son.

“Trillanes’ camp uncovers Oplan Alan of the GMA (President Arroyo’s initials) administration. It is a plot to assassinate candidate Trillanes when he gets out of detention to vote on Monday and blame it on the NPA (New People’s Army). Let’s pass this message to let plotters know that we are watching them,” the text messages read.

The military yesterday assured the security of Trillanes, saying the Marine escorts of the GO senatorial

candidate would be capable of thwarting any attempt on his life when he casts his ballot in Caloocan City (Metro Manila) today.

“His security will be taken care of,” Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan said during a telephone interview, referring to Trillanes, who is detained at the Marines headquarters in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City (Metro Manila).

Trillanes is in jail on charges of rebellion before the Makati City Regional Trial Court.

He is allegedly one of the six top core leaders of the Magdalo group of junior military officers who staged the short-lived Oakwood mutiny in July 2003.

“Definitely, he (Trillanes) will be escorted (by Marine custodians),” Caculitan said.

Trillanes and his fellow mutiny leaders are also undergoing trial in the military, through a general court martial, for violation of the Article of War 96 or conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman.

Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. last Thursday said the NPA and its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), are supporting and endorsing the candidacy of Trillanes.

Caculitan said the Marine Corps has no information to support the alleged assassination plot.

“So far, we have not received any information about threats against him. We have no reports about such information,” he added.

Early this month, Trillanes said Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. had issued a directive to military commanders to ensure a 12-0 victory for Malacanang’s Team Unity senatorial candidates.

This was belied by Esperon, who challenged the Navy officer to substantiate his allegation.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales also yesterday linked Trillanes to the CPP-NPA).

Gonzales said they will cooperate with the Department of National Defense (DND) to pin down Trillanes on the alleged link.

He, however, added he will pursue the investigation of the alleged link after today’s polls so that the political opposition will not take advantage of it for election purposes.

“Why not (conduct the probe)? Even before, we already had information they (in the Magdalo group had) contact with the CPP-NPA,” Gonzales said.

He added they will make public their evidence against Trillanes “in due time.”

Ebdane also last Thursday said the CPP-NPA is helping Trillanes in his campaign but the Defense chief refused to comment on who initiated the “arrangement.”

“This is a specific case, based on the intelligence report we got. It is probably true (that the CPP-NPA is helping Trillanes),” he added.

Ebdane said they do want to go into details “to protect our source, this is for the security of our source.”

While denying that the DND and Armed Forces leadership are behind the “hate campaign” against Trillanes, Ebdane, however, failed to control his emotions when he made a public appeal not to vote for candidates who are only popular but have no background on governance.

When asked who are the candidates he was referring to, the Defense chief said,” Even if I am a presidential appointee, who could stop me from voting for Team Unity?”

Sherwin C. Olaes and PNA

Election Retrurns In Hands Of Poll Cheats Exposed

Comelec chief Abalos, Defense Secy. Ebdane and AFP rogue chief Esperon are determined to rob the true will of the Filipino people. Malacanang has dim scenario if the opposition takes control of the legislature. Scams, anomalies and other crimes against the Filipino people will be thwarted on its bud. The criminal triad of Abalos-Ebdane-Esperon is remnants of the Hello Garci political scam. The Triad is brewing another perfect crime to thwart the true will of the people on Monday polls.

Election 2007 Map

Comelec denies election documents genuine

ERs in hands of poll cheats exposed

Daily Tribune 05/14/2007

Even before the precincts open today, in some parts of Mindanao, the elections are said to be over, including the counting, as bared in an exclusive ABS-CBN report aired over the weekend.

At the same time, dzBB radio yesterday bared that deputized teachers in Batangas City failed to find duplicates of the first of four pages of the election returns (ERs) they had received, while some have gone missing.

The poll body claimed that teachers were allowed to bring home these election documents for their “safekeeping.”

ABS-CBN reporter Ricky Carandang had a footage of his unnamed source pointing to the security water marks and saying poll operators have been selling official ballots and ERs weeks before the scheduled elections, selling them anywhere from P40,000 to P60,000 per set.

The video footage also showed the source teaching the reporter to identify the security markings in the ER and the ballot to prove their authenticity.

Held against an electronic magnifying glass, the ERs were shown to have distinguishable security markings and placed under ultra-violet lighting, the security marks also showed up.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) quickly went into a damage control mode, with its spokesman, James Jimenez, claiming that even if the election documents shown up on TV have a security seal,

such is not proof of their genuineness.

Jimenez claimed that these reports ERs being peddled by poll operators to commit fraud is yet another attempt to discredit and destroy the credibility of the Comelec and the elections.

Jimenez told ANC that the ERs shown could still be fake despite the security markings.

“As for security marks, whether these are the same with the original, I cannot say for certain. In fact, very few people know what the actual security marks are. So at this stage, without actually having the opportunity to verify an absolutely authentic document and the documents that are reportedly for sale, it would be very hard to say whether or not these security marks are accurately placed or are even of the right type,” he said.

In a poll protest lodged before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal concerning the vice presidential votes, it was found that many of the ERs submitted to it were fake as they carried no security watermaks.

An member of the anti-fraud team from the opposition camp said it is unlikely for poll operators to manufacture fake ERs and go to all the trouble of putting out special security watermarks—especially as these are reportedly being sold in the Mindanao area. Besides, these security marks are not visible to the naked eye.

A survey result released by the Social Weather Stations on the public’s cheating expectations showed that cheating in vote-counting or “dagdag-bawas” expectations went up in Metro Manila, from 66 percent to 70 percent. It was the same in the Visayas, from 37 percent to 46 percent.

The Genuine Opposition (GO) for its part, yesterday said its anti-cheating teams are in place, saying it is ready to do its task.

GO said it is ready to field its anti-fraud team to monitor the mid-term elections held today to ensure that the votes of the opposition senatorial bets would be counted and that vote shaving and vote padding would be avoided.

In the same light, National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) President Damaso Magbual said he and his team are now ready to do the quick count as they try to salvage Namfrel’s reputation, following a highly controversial 2004 tallying of votes.

“We will be faster. All of the problems the last time around have been fixed,” Magbual told the Tribune.

He added that the Namfrel is “adequately ready” for the poll canvassing.

Adel Tamano, spokesperson for GO, said they have spent many weeks in setting up their anti-cheating team.

“We have spent weeks and weeks setting up our anti-cheating team. We can honestly say that given our very limited resources we have come up with a well organized and intelligently set up anti-fraud team,” he said, while refusing to give the number of people involved.

Tamano said the said anti-cheating team would be scattered all over the country , the majority of which would be assigned to cheating-prone areas.

“This anti-cheating team is composed of patriotic Filipinos who want nothing more than to have honest elections,” Tamano said.

Meanwhile, senatorial re-electionist Panfilo Lacson on Saturday urged voters not to just vote wisely in today’s elections, but to make sure that they guard their votes as well.

“When they go to their respective polling precincts on Monday, Filipinos should not just choose their candidates wisely. They should also guard their votes vigilantly,” Lacson said in a statement.

Lacson gave the last-minute advice to voters as he said the consequences of choosing wrongly – or allowing the wrong candidates to cheat their way to victory – will be disastrous for the next three to six years.

“If we choose the wrong candidate or allow the wrong candidate to cheat his or her way to victory, we will have to live with that choice for the next three years for local candidates – or six years in the case of senators,” Lacson said.

He said voters should use their conscience in making their choices, as they will be installing into office leaders who will shape the government’s policies for at least the next three years.

He said the May 14 elections will be a chance for Filipinos to get back at an administration that has trampled on their rights since 2001. “It is time that we get back at this administration for violating our rights, by using our sacred right to vote,” he said.

Lacson also made an appeal to Filipinos who have become cynical of this year’s elections to still go out and vote, saying those who forfeit their right to vote will deserve whoever will “win,” including those who turn out to be corrupt.

“Those who say they are not interested in politics deserve the elected officials who are worse than themselves. If they remain cynical and don’t vote, they deserve the elected officials,” he said.

“People have become cynical and rightly so. What they see is a circus,” he added.

Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., appealed to the public and the electorate to exercise heightened vigilance in order to protect the electoral process in the country and preserve democracy. “To attain clean, orderly and peaceful elections, all of our citizens must take an active part in protecting the sanctity of the ballot which represents the supremacy of the Filipino masses,” Villar said.

“This is the time to make a difference and allow the will of our people to prevail,” Villar said.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) called on the voters yesterday to exercise their people power through the ballot and not boycott the polls.

CBCP president Angel Lagdameo said:”Do not allow anyone to violate the sanctity of your ballot. Vote according to your conscience. Vote freely whom you believe can advance the common good of this country. Protect your vote from being tampered with. Remember: the candidate who wins by cheating will also govern by cheating. The citizens who sell their votes for any price deserve the government they install with their votes.”

The CBCP president said that they had thousands of volunteers working with the CBCP national secretariat for social action (Nassa), Namfrel and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Malacañang, which is highly suspected of ensuring a victory of Team Unity candidates through poll fraud yesterday said it will not engage in any cheating, but predicted that TU candidates will dominate the Senate and come off as the new majority.

In a text message to Malacañang reporters, Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio said the administration will not taint the credibility of today’s elections since it is already assured of TU’s victory at the polls.

“Administration candidates are committed to have clean and honest elections tomorrow. Administration candidates will therefore not be disposed to taint the integrity and credibility of tomorrow’s polls through cheating. The administration is looking forward to gaining a new majority in the the Senate, courtesy of decisive TU victory,” Claudio said.

The Palace also bragged about its advantage in the local government units (LGUs), claiming that the GO has failed to field candidates in 55 percent of provinces, towns and cities nationwide.

“We are upbeat about the chances of TU because they carried out a very successful campaign that was enthusias-tically received by the electorate in more provinces than the opposition could even dream of reaching. Eighty five percent of incumbent local officials are supporting TU. The administration coalition has fielded candidates for 98 percent of the 17,000 elective positions being contested, all of them brandishing and distributing sample ballots bearing the TU lineup.”

“TU has also succeeded in presenting a contrast between its platform of performance and progress against GO’s campaign of hate, obstruction and hypocrisy. As local execs, many of them have been in the forefront of defending PGMA and the government against destabilization efforts of the opposition in ’05 and ’06. They are aware that charges of election fraud can undo the climate of political stability and economic growth momentum that they themselves helped PGMA create,” he added.

The Palace earlier denied having a hand on reports that poll cheating is already being readied especially in Mindanao .

The Palace was particularly reacting to the Tribune report that aside from fabricated election returns (ERs) favoring the TU bets of President Arroyo, fake P 500 bills were being circulated in Visayas and Mindanao to be used for vote buying in favor of the administration’ candidates.

There were also reports that the votes cast by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in favor of the GO candidates were tampered and replaced by the name of the TU bets.

When asked about this, Presidential Legal Adviser Sergio Apostol said it is the GO that is using money to influence votes in Visayas and Mindanao, and not the TU which has solid support from the LGUs.

“Maybe, the money came from the supporters of GO and not from us because we have solid backing from the LGUs,” Apostol said. With Jojo Arazas, Sherwin C. Olaes and Tribune wires
16 Comelec officials under watch for possible poll cheating
Perfecting a crime