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DOJ-Comelec poll fraud probers to release joint order Monday


The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will release next Monday the order governing the conduct of their joint investigation into allegations of massive cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes on Friday, Justice Sec. Leila de Lima that the DOJ and the Comelec are drafting the order. Once the document is out, members of the committee will then draft the ground rules for the probe. "Ealier, he (Brillantes) gave certain inputs into that draft joint order. So we had a meeting instead of passing on the document back and forth. There are other confidential matters in the sense that we discussed other personalities who came up to him to express willingness to participate in the joint investigation," said De Lima. In a separate interview, Brillantes said that the rules of the joint committee "include everything, from the venue, to who will be invited, what the process is, the subpoena of witnesses, and who the respondents are." The issuance of the joint order will set in motion the much-hyped joint inquiry, whose creation was sparked by exposés by personalities who allegedly took part in poll fraud. These include suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Zaldy Ampatuan, former elections supervisor Lintang Bedol, and a group of Special Action Force (SAF) policemen led by Senior Supt. Rafael Santiago. Heading the joint DOJ-Comelec committee is Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, the state's highest-ranking prosecutor. He will have the following as members: Comelec law department head Ferdinand Rafanan, poll body lawyer Michael Villaret, Laguna Provincial Prosecutor George Dy and Pasig City Prosecutor Jacinto Ang. De Lima has earlier clarified that the aim of the inquiry is not to proclaim winners in the 2004 and 2007 elections, but to validate claims that there was massive cheating in the controversial polls. Koko Pimentel's victory Also on Friday, De Lima and Brillantes both welcomed Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III's proclamation as the 12th winning senator in the 2007 elections. While they both once served as Pimentel's election lawyer, De Lima and Brillantes vowed to be fair and said that there is no need for them to inhibit from the DOJ-Comelec inquiry. In a landmark decision last Thursday, the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) ruled that Pimentel, son of former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., won over Juan Miguel Zubiri, who resigned as senator Wednesday last week. According to SET's final tally, Pimentel got 10,898,786 votes while Zubiri got 10,640,620. In the interview with DOJ reporters, the Comelec chair said that SET's proclamation of his former client's victory augurs well for the DOJ-Comelec joint inquiry. "[Pimentel's proclamation] should set a new landscape in the Philippines' political scenario. It's the first time that a senator won a protest case," said Brillantes. For her part, De Lima said that Pimentel's proclamation was "long overdue." - VVP, GMA News

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