Lacson seeks Senate probe on alleged '04, '07 poll fraud

Senator Panfilo Lacson has filed a resolution seeking an inquiry into the alleged massive poll fraud committed during the 2004 and 2007 elections allegedly through then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several election officials. Senate Resolution No. 537 seeks to direct the Senate blue ribbon committee to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation into allegations of "widespread, systemic, organized, and massive poll fraud and election sabotage" in the two elections. It said the alleged fraud was committed particularly in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) through the "malfeasance, misfeasance, and non-feasance" in public office by Arroyo, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, and other officials of the poll body and other state agencies. "The alleged cheating in 2004 and 2007 would not have been possible without the indispensable cooperation and direct participation of public officers from the Comelec and other branches and entities of the national and local governments involved in the electoral exercise," Lacson said in the measure. "All public officers as well as private individuals conspiring and confederating to perpetuate this massive fraud should be held accountable to the sovereign Filipino people," he added. Arroyo, through her legal spokesperson Raul Lambino, and Abalos had both denied irregularities in the 2004 and 2007 elections. Lambino said Arroyo is ready to face any investigation that will be conducted on the matter. Lacson said Congress should be able to enact laws to prevent the future commission of such alleged poll fraud. Bayan Muna Reps. Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares have also filed House Resolution 1475 directing the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms to conduct a similar inquiry. Anomalies in 2004, 2007 Arroyo won in the 2004 presidential elections after garnering 12,905,808 votes over her closest rival, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., who got 11,782,232 votes. Poe claimed that Arroyo robbed him of his. Poe died on Dec. 14, 2004, but his widow, Susan Roces, pursued the protest. The Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), however, dismissed the protest in 2005. During the same year, a taped conversation about alleged vote-rigging between a woman presumed to be Arroyo and a man presumed to be former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano surfaced. It became known as the “Hello Garci" controversy. Sen. Francis Escudero also filed Joint Resolution No. 11 seeking the creation of a fact-finding commission that would supposedly bring closure to allegations of massive poll fraud which allegedly benefited Arroyo. Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes, speaking as Poe's lawyer, maintained that the late actor was the real winner in the 2004 elections. Early this month, former Maguindanao elections supervisor Lintang Bedol and suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Zaldy Ampatuan also tagged Arroyo in rigging the 2007 polls. In his affidavit, Bedol said he was ordered by Mrs. Arroyo through the Ampatuans to ensure that then senatorial bets Lacson, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Benigno Aquino III would “get zero votes" in Maguindanao province during the 2007 elections. The votes were allegedly transferred to candidates allied with Mrs. Arroyo, particularly Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, who has since denied involvement in any poll fraud. Lacson vs Arroyo? Lacson was in hiding for more than a year to evade what he said was a campaign of "political persecution" being mounted against him by the past administration of Arroyo, of which he was a staunch critic. He returned to the country last March after the Court of Appeals ordered with finality the nullification of the arrest warrants against him, as well as of the charges lodged against him for his alleged involvement in the November 2000 killing of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito. - KBK, GMA News