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Pimentel wants poll execs in past election anomalies neutralized


An opposition senator on Monday urged the Commission on Elections to neutralize election officers who had been allegedly involved in rigging results in past polls. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr said election officials who conspired with former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in the massive “dagdag bawas" (vote-shaving, vote-padding) operations in the 2004 elections have remained unpunished with many of them have even been promoted to higher positions. “My humble suggestion is if we want to create credibility for the election in those areas (where cheating happened), the Comelec should exercise its authority to transfer them to assignments where they will not be able to manipulate or rig the election results." He added, “Some Comelec personnel who were identified as participants in cheating operations in previous elections are still occupying positions especially in Moro land." He identified one of them as Reynaldo Sumalipao, who the senator claimed was “rewarded with the post of director of the Comelec regional office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), despite having been implicated in the 'Hello, Garci’ scandal." The "Hello, Garci" controversy refers to the alleged wiretapped conversations between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano wherein the rigging of the May 2004 polls were supposedly discussed. Pimentel criticized the Comelec for its failure to investigate the complaints against Garcillano and his alleged accomplices and initiate administrative and criminal cases against them despite the ample documentary evidence of their participation in electoral fraud as unearthed in exhaustive congressional investigation on the poll scandal. Pimentel said Sumalipao should be relieved as regional director of the Comelec office in the ARMM to dispel apprehensions the poll body official may get involved anew in “special operations" that would taint the outcome of the 2010 polls. He said that due to the failure to prosecute and remove the alleged Garci boys, they were utilized for large-scale cheating operations in the 2007 senatorial elections in Mindanao provinces. In a text message to GMANews.TV, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said he personally sees wisdom in Pimentel's proposal and the possibility that the poll body will consider the suggestion. "It is a call worth considering by the Comelec en banc considering it comes from Sen Pimentel. Comelec headed by Chairman (Jose Armando) Melo will surely and seriously look into this," Sarmiento said. The senator’s son, Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel III was bumped off from the 12th slot by administration bet, now Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, after the votes from Maguindanao came in and included in the canvass. Pimentel III’s protest is still pending before the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET). Accused of manipulating the vote results then was Maguindanao provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol, who went into hiding after the Comelec filed complaints against him. [See: Comelec exec in Maguindanao poll fraud remains missing] Pimentel called on the Comelec to implement the proposal to hold elections in the ARMM at least l0 days before the May 10, 2010 national and local elections as a practical safeguard against electoral fraud and violence. He reiterated that the poll body can advance the elections in the ARMM and other “hot spots" under the Omnibus Election Code. - LBG, GMANews.TV

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