AFP: No info on soldiers involved in Maguindanao poll fraud

The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Wednesday said it does not have any information if there were soldiers involved in the alleged rigging of election results in Maguindanao in 2007. “We don’t have any information on that…We have not heard of any reports, implicating any Armed Forces personnel in any cheating exercise or any fraud in the elections," Rodriguez told defense reporters in a phone patch interview. The interview was made after suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARRM)Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan was reported to have said that the 2007 senatorial and local elections in the province was rigged in favor of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and here candidates. Ampatuan, a principal suspect in the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre, did not specify military involvement in the alleged cheating, but said that Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, met with his father, then Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. — also a principal suspect in the massacre case — on how to rig the 2007 elections in the ARRM. Zaldy earlier offered to become a state witness in the Maguindanao massacre case but his lawyers later denied he did so. Some members of the Ampatuan clan, headed by Andal Sr., and their private militia are accused of murdering 57 people, including 32 journalists, on Nov. 23, 2009. Rodriguez, however, said that if any soldier is found to have been involved in the cheating, the military would not hesitate to punish them. “Our marching order is that any infraction of regulations by Armed Forces personnel should be dealt with immediately, as soon as they are discovered, because it diminishes the credibility of the entire organization. It is to the best interest of the Armed Force that erring soldiers are given (punishments), or should not be coddled," he said. GMA News' "24 Oras" reported on Wednesday that several senators were interested in knowing the extent of Zaldy's knowledge about the Maguindanao election cheating.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV Generals implicated in election fraud Three military generals were accused of being a party to the rigging of the 2004 presidential elections to ensure Arroyo’s victory, including then AFP deputy chief of staff for operations and concurrent Maj. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who denied the allegation. Esperon became commander of the Army Special Operations Command, as well as Army chief, and then Armed Forces chief. When he retired from the AFP, Esperon served as presidential adviser on the peace process and head of the Presidential Management Staff during the Arroyo administration. The two other generals linked to the cheating in the 2004 polls were then Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko and the then 1st Infantry Division and concurrent Task Force Comet chief Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon. A fourth general, then 1st Marine Brigade chief Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani, reportedly supported the presidential bid of actor Fernando Poe Jr. Gudani’s name and that of Esperon, Kyamko, and Habacon were supposedly mentioned in the controversial “Hello Garci" tapes, a compilation of wiretapped conversations between Arroyo and former Elections Commissioner Virgillo Garcillano which allegedly proves the polls were rigged. — VS, GMA News