'Garci' men take custody of ERs from 13 Lanao Sur towns

Newsbreak: Deviating from standard procedure, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) over the weekend took in its custody the election returns from the 13 towns in Lanao del Sur that held special elections last May 26. This was meant to secure the documents from partisan activity. But there's a hitch: some members of the task force who were assigned to retrieve the documents were said to be the same election officials involved in the alleged tampering of votes in the 2004 presidential polls. The election returns (ERs) from the 13 municipalities that held special elections last May 26 are now in the custody of the Comelec's Special Action Group (SAG) that was formed to oversee the conduct of last Saturday's polls. This came as a result of a directive from Rene Sarmiento, the Comelec commissioner in charge of the special elections in the province. Saying that the move was meant to protect the documents from manipulation, Sarmiento ordered Rosalinda Baliquig, acting provincial treasurer, to surrender the ERs to the SAG. Sarmiento issued the directive Sunday but Newsbreak gathered that Jubiel Surmieda, a division chief at the Comelec's law department in Manila and member of the SAG, attempted to secure the accountable forms as early as Saturday night. This created “a little controversy," Baliquig told Newsbreak, as Surmieda moved without written authorization from Sarmiento. Senior Comelec officials describe Surmieda as part of the “inner circle" of disgraced former Commissioner Virgilio “Garci" Garcillano. Based on standard procedure, the provincial treasurer is the appointed custodian of the ballots, ERs and certificate of canvass (COC). From the provincial treasurer, the ballots and ERs are given to the municipal treasurers, who then distribute these to the Board of Election Inspectors an hour before voting. The COCs, on the other hand, are turned over to the board of canvassers before the canvass begins. Not the First Time On Sunday, without written authorization, SAG member Renault Macarambon was able to gather some ERs from the provincial capitol by having the municipal treasurers sign a document stating that the accountable forms had been turned over to him. Macarambon is also a known associate of Garcillano. It was only around 1 p.m of Sunday, May 27, that Teofisto Elnas Jr., a member of SAG, was able to present to Balaquig the directive signed by Sarmiento, which ordered the acting provincial treasurer to surrender the remaining ERs to the SAG. Elnas told Newsbreak that they wanted to secure the ERs to prevent any possible manipulation by unscrupulous people. A Comelec senior official said it was not the first time that the poll body deviated from a standard election procedure. To preserve the integrity of poll documents, the poll body used to do this in previous elections in the troubled Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Sought for comment, Sarmiento confirmed that he issued the directive on the ERs as advised by the SAG, which is headed by deputy executive for operations Jose Tolentino Jr. The Comelec commissioner said that the SAG recommended that they secure the ERs considering the “special" situation in Lanao del Sur. (SAG head Tolentino was the Comelec's technical adviser in the botched poll modernization program. He was among those investigated--but not charged--in the multibillion-peso MegaPacific deal which has been dismissed by the Ombudsman.) Sarmiento acknowledged that he was not aware that some of the SAG members are close associates of Garcillano, tagged as the mastermind in the alleged manipulation of votes in the 2004 elections to favor President Arroyo. Hello, Garci Renault Macarambon, one of the SAG members, was among the Comelec officials whose name was mentioned in the “Hello, Garci" tape. The wiretapped conversations showed Garcillano coordinating moves with his trusted men to fabricate election results in Mindanao provinces. In his conversation with a certain "Danny" on May 25, 2004, Garcillano named one "Lou Macarambon" as the one who would take care of the remaining election results in Lanao del Sur purportedly to ensure the victory of then senatorial candidate Robert Barbers. “Mananalo siya talaga. Nandun si Lou Macarambon eh. Pababantayan ko (He will really win there. Lou Macarambon is there. I will make him ensure it). Comelec sources identified this “Lou Macarambon" as Renault Macarambon, who was then the vice-chair of the Lanao del Sur board of canvassers. (Although considered an opposition country, President Arroyo got 128,301 votes versus Fernando Poe's measly 43,302 in Lanao del Sur during the 2004 polls. Incidentally, the chair of the Lanao del Sur provincial board of canvassers at that time was Rey Sumalipao, who is now on "floating status" as regional elections director in ARMM.) After the 2004 elections, Macarambon was promoted as chief of the Comelec's Elections and Barangay Affairs Department. Dispelling suggestions that the integrity of the documents now with SAG has been compromised, Sarmiento said he gave a verbal order to secure the ERs as early as last Saturday, which could explain the eagerness of some SAG members to get the ERs that night. He said the SAG members may have acted with dispatch that day even before he could write down his directive. Sarmiento said the ERs are properly accounted for and are being kept at the Comelec's monitoring office inside the Marawi Resort Hotel. Told that the integrity of some of the SAG members is being doubted because of their alleged involvement in cheating in the 2004 elections, Sarmiento said he was not aware of this. He said the SAG members have been helpful in helping him supervise the special elections in Lanao del Sur. And even if some Comelec officials were involved in past irregularities, Sarmiento said, “There is always redemption." - Newsbreak