Comelec asked to prove it investigated players in 'Hello Garci' scandal

Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano is asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prove that it really investigated poll body officials who were supposedly involved in the "Hello Garci" poll fraud scandal. "[The] Comelec explained that these officials were already investigated and were later cleared of all charges. However, according to recent media reports, no actual investigations were conducted. So I have to ask: Did Comelec really investigate these men’s involvement in the scandal?" said Cayetano. Cayetano earlier revealed that alleged key players in the Hello Garci scandal were still holding positions in the Comelec. A taped conversation – about alleged vote-rigging – between a woman presumed to be Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a man believed to be former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in 2004 became an object of investigation in 2005 and has since been known as the “Hello Garci" controversy. Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said that the poll officials mentioned by Cayetano were already investigated and were later cleared by the Comelec's law department. But in a recent radio interview, law department head Ferdinand Rafanan said he was not aware of any investigation related to the issue. Misunderstanding? In a text message to GMA News Online, Jimenez quoted Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes as saying that Rafanan should have qualified his statement that he was probably referring only to his term as law department head. "The chairman clarified that there was, in fact, an investigation conducted prior (to Rafanan's term)," Jimenez said on Wednesday. Rafanan assumed his post in 2008, said Jimenez. Cayetano, however, said the poll body should provide documents that would prove there was an investigation. He specifically asked the law department for copies of the complaint’s filed, the transcripts, the lists of witnesses, the investigation report (if any) and the names of the Comelec officers who conducted the investigation. “Determining the absence or presence of these investigations is the first step in ensuring that we get to the heart of the matter – that is making sure that those involved in the Hello Garci scandal are held accountable," he said. But Jimenez said that records of the investigation "perished" in the fire that gutted the Comelec office in 2007. The Commission on Appointment's committee on constitutional commissions and offices had deferred the hearing on Brillantes' appointment because of pending questions by Cayetano. Brillantes served as counsel to retired Associate Justice Dante Tinga, who filed an electoral protest against Cayetano's wife for supposedly cheating in the May 2010 elections. — LBG, GMA News