Comelec-DOJ panel to thresh out ground rules Friday

The Commission on Elections expects to work through the weekend with the Department of Justice in threshing out ground rules for the probe into alleged poll fraud in 2004 and 2007. Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Thursday the Comelec and DOJ panel members will start discussing the details on Friday and work possibly until Tuesday. "Starting tomorrow the panel will start to sit down (and discuss) saan gagawin, anong venue, kailan ang umpisa, sino ang tatawagin. Mag-listing kami ng witnesses at sino ang gagawing respondent. Yan paguusapan namin starting tomorrow up to Monday or Tuesday," he said in an interview on dwIZ radio. (Starting Friday, the panel will sit down and discuss the venues and times of the hearing, who to invite, who are to be considered witnesses and respondents. We expect to discuss it up to Monday or Tuesday.) He said the Comelec and DOJ are to formally name the members of the investigating panel within Thursday. The panel may start its investigation next week, he added. Brillantes said he expects the probe body to take up to six months, likely up to the end of the year, to do its work. "It will take three, four, five, up to six months, up to the end of the year most probably (It will take probably up to six months, to the end of the year most probably)," he said. But Brillantes stressed it is not the Comelec that will declare who really won in the elections, if it can establish there was fraud. He said the job of determining who really won the elections is with the electoral tribunals concerned. "Ang specific purpose ng investigation ng DOJ-Comelec is to determine kung nagkaroon ng dayaan at sino ang nandaya para parusahan ito ... We don’t have to count ballots anymore," Brillantes said in a separate interview on dzXL radio. (The specific purpose of the DOJ-Comelec is to determine if there was poll fraud and who should be punished. We do not have to count ballots anymore.)" — RSJ, GMA News