Filtered By: Topstories
News

DOJ: 'High-profile' witness to testify on '04, '07 poll fraud


Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Elections chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. are in touch with a "high profile" witness who could substantiate allegations that massive cheating marred the 2004 and 2007 elections. Speaking to reporters at the Justice Department on Wednesday, De Lima said the witness has already completed writing his affidavit that detailed his knowledge of how results of the 2004 and 2007 polls were rigged. "This week, I am expecting the witness who has already accessed Chair Brillantes. According to Chair Brillantes, he has already spoken with the witness who has already written his affidavit. But he will inform me when he can be presented," De Lima said. Asked to describe the witness, De Lima merely said that he is "high profile." She did not elaborate. She added that the DOJ-Comelec joint fact-finding team will fly to Maguindanao soon to interview at least 12 election supervisors who may have participated in the alleged election fraud in 2004 and 2007. The fact-finding team is different from the DOJ-Comelec preliminary investigation panel headed by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, the government's chief prosecutor. The preliminary investigation seeks to determine if there is probable cause that warrants the filing of criminal cases before the proper courts. So far, the joint initiative of the DOJ and Comelec has drawn witnesses like former provincial election supervisors Yogie Martirizar and Lilian Radam, based in North Cotabato and South Cotabato, respectively. Both Radam and Martirizar said then Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos directly gave them instructions to manipulate results of the 2007 mid-term polls in their respective jurisdictions. The two former poll officials said Abalos ordered them to deliver a full 12-0 sweep in favor of the 12 senatorial candidates of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's administration. Abalos has denied the allegation and has instead lashed back at De Lima, whom he accused of harboring "fugitives from justice" like Radam and Martirizar. The two face electoral sabotage cases filed by Sen. Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, who was only declared as the rightful winner of the 12th seat in the Senate last August. Pimentel was allegedly robbed of victory in 2007 because of the Arroyo administration's alleged "12-0" operation. Other witnesses for the DOJ-Comelec probe are the team of Special Action Force policemen led by Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago, who admitted to participating in a series of break-ins at the Batasan Pambansa complex in January and February 2005. Santiago said that in the four break-ins, civilians employed by alleged poll operator Roque Bello switched original election returns (ERs) with fake ones to cover up for the cheating in the 2004 polls. Santiago said the ERs were replaced with tampered ones so that in the event of a recount, Mrs. Arroyo will still emerge as the winner of the 2004 presidential elections. A recount never materialized because the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, junked the electoral protest filed by the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., Mrs. Arroyo's closest contender in the 2004 presidential race. — RSJ, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT