Cop in 2004 'poll fraud' cover-up denies implicating NCRPO chief

Police Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago on Friday denied linking National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Alan Purisima to the alleged widespread cheating in the 2004 presidential elections. Santiago and his group, composed of Special Action Force (SAF) policemen, sought audience with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to bring to her attention "malicious news articles" where the police colonel was quoted as saying that Purisima was involved in the 2004 poll fraud. According to at least three news reports published last Thursday, Santiago has tagged Purisima as being privy to the operation to cover up for the 2004 poll fraud. Santiago supposedly said that Purisima was closely allied with ex-Philippine National Police chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., who allegedly gave the marching orders for the operation. But Santiago denied sending a text message where he implicated Purisima, adding that the text message was likely sent by "unseen hands" who want to turn the NCRPO chief against him. "I don't have anything to do with those allegations that I was incriminating somebody else. We stick by our affidavits and their contents," Santiago told reporters at the Department of Justice. His lawyer, Victor Rodriguez, said that the false text message is "another form of harassment because it creates a wedge between the police officers." In a separate statement, Santiago's camp said they expected the attacks against them after they blew the whistle on the operation to allegedly cover up for election fraud in the 2004 elections. "We expect that there will be more demolition jobs against us to come, considering the enormous resources at the disposal of those behind it. This we know might even cause our life, not until we are able to take part int he legal process of the inquiry to ferret out the truth, which we are just awaiting," said Santiago and his men. Santiago's group has admitted to breaking into the Batasan Pambansa in January and February 2005 to provide security to private citizens who switched original election returns (ERs) with fake ones. The operation was supposedly carried out to make sure that then-candidate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would still emerge as winner over her closest rival, actor Fernando Poe Jr. Poe died in December 2004, prompting his widow, actress Susan Roces, to pursue his election protest on his behalf. Roces was seeking a recount of votes, but a recount never materialized because the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) junked Poe's election protest in March 2005. — RSJ, GMA News