‘Garci’ dared to tell all after Bedol’s surrender

Former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano should tell all on the alleged 2004 poll fraud after ex-Maguindanao elections supervisor Lintang Bedol — who was linked to similar manipulation of poll results in 2007 — voluntarily surrendered to government authorities, a lawmaker said Tuesday. Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said it is time for Garcillano to shed light on the supposed irregularities during the 2004 national elections, when votes were allegedly rigged in favor of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. "Garci would be the best witness on election fraud considering that he is the so-called mentor of Lintang Bedol. He knows the whole election fraud machinery from top to bottom," Casiño said in a statement. Casiño issued his call after Bedol, who supposedly manipulated the votes from Mindanao in favor of the administration candidates during the 2007 mid-term elections, was turned over by the Department of Interior and Local Government to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday morning. Casiño, who proposed a House probe on the alleged cheating in these previous elections, urged Garcillano to come out with the truth on what really transpired during the 2004 polls. ‘Hello, Garci’ scandal Recordings of conversations between two people — supposedly Garcillano and Mrs. Arroyo —discussing in detail the manipulation of votes in 2004, came out six years ago, triggering the worst political storm of the nine-year Arroyo administration. [See: 'Hello, Garci' Timeline] In the conversation, Mrs. Arroyo was alleged to have directed Garcillano to ensure that she will have a lead of a million votes over the late Fernado Poe Jr., the opposition standard bearer. In 2005, the so-called “Hello, Garci" scandal prompted several Cabinet members and senior government officials to resign from the administration and call for Mrs. Arroyo's resignation. Mrs. Arroyo later apologized on national TV for what she called a "lapse in judgment" when she called Comelec official on the phone. Mrs. Arroyo did not identify the poll official, even as she maintained that she was not involved in any electoral fraud. Garcillano went into hiding after the scandal broke out but eventually surfaced last year. He maintained that he received no instructions from Mrs. Arroyo to rig the results of the elections in favor of the latter. — RSJ, GMA News