5 SAF men in 2004 'poll fraud' submit affidavits to DOJ

Five Special Action Force (SAF) policemen who admitted taking part in the operation to cover up for the alleged 2004 election fraud went to the Department of Justice to detail their knowledge of their break-ins at the Batasan Pambansa building in 2005. Police Officers 2 (PO2) Alan Layugan, Trifon Laxamana, Rodel Tabangin, Rudy Gahar, and PO1 Norman Duco submitted two sworn affidavits to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. One affidavit contained the statements of Gahar, Layugan and Duct; the other contained those of Laxamana and Tabangin. The five are represented by lawyer Victor Rodriguez. The five men belong to a team led by Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago. Last week, the group submitted to the Justice Department at least 38 of the 6,000 original election returns (ERs) they pilfered from the Batasan complex in January and February 2005. The DOJ and the Comelec are set to investigate allegations of widespread cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections. Santiago has said that 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 Poe's widow, actress 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 early 2005. — Sophia Dedace/RSJ, GMA News