Govt to check 'harassment' claims by cop in 2004 'poll fraud'

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has asked Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to look into allegations that an aide of Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. is harassing police Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago, who exposed the operation to allegedly cover-up massive cheating in the 2004 elections. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, De Lima said the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will validate claims that Ebdane's aide was using Santiago's former subordinates to fabricate charges against the police colonel. "I got the same report from the camp of Colonel Santiago, but we're asking for more particulars about the alleged harassment. I will coordinate with the Secretary of the Interior and Local Government. Once we validate [the] acts of harassment, the SILG has to act on it appropriately," said De Lima. "[Santiago's] former subordinates were supposedly being asked to sign certain trumped-up charges against Col. Santiago," she added. Santiago was recently relieved as Zambales provincial police director for still undetermined reasons. But the police colonel, who was transferred to the Philippine National Police's headquarters in Quezon City, has denied that his relief was his motive for surfacing and linking Ebdane to the alleged plan to cover up the 2004 poll fraud. January 2005 'special operation' Santiago and five Special Action Force (SAF) men went to De Lima last week to turn over at least 38 of the 6,000 election returns (ERs) they stole from the Batasan Pambansa building in January 2005. Santiago has claimed that he and his group were acting on the orders of Ebdane, who headed the PNP at that time. Ebdane has since denied the allegation. Santiago said they broke into the Batasan complex four times to switch original ERs with fake ones so that if a recount of votes is conducted, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will still retain her 1.1-million lead over her closest opponent, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. Poe, who claimed that Mrs. Arroyo cheated him of victory, died in December 2004. The so-called Batasan break-ins were supposedly carried out in anticipation of a recount to be requested by Susan Roces, who planned to pursue her late husband's electoral protest pending before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET). But the protest did not gain ground and a recount never materialized because the Supreme Court, sitting as the PET, junked the Poe election protest in September 2005. — RSJ, GMA News