Opposition: Dy sure to testify in impeachment

Former Isabela governor Faustino Dy Jr. is sure to testify during the impeachment proceedings against President Arroyo, opposition leaders said yesterday.

Dy had earlier promised to talk about the illegal numbers game jueteng and the alleged bribery of election officials in the presence of Mrs. Arroyo, as alleged by Senate jueteng witness Michaelangelo Zuce.

As this developed, another witness — said to be "an active member of one of the armed services in the country" — was touted by opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson as ready to come forth to corroborate Zuce’s claims in tomorrow’s continuation of the Senate hearing into the jueteng controversy.

South Cotabato Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio, who heads the impeachment secretariat, told a news conference that Minority Leader Francis Escudero, who is in Los Angeles, California, has obtained a commitment from Dy that the governor would testify.

"When and where, and what Governor Dy would say, we still do not know," she said.

Custodio said Escudero had met Dy several times since the minority leader arrived in California last Thursday.

She added that Escudero was expected to return to Manila on Thursday but did not know if Dy would accompany him.

The Senate has invited the former governor to its jueteng hearing tomorrow, and there were some indications that he had accepted the invitation.

According to Zuce, the President met with Commission on Elections regional directors at her La Vista, Quezon City house in January 2004. The dinner meeting was attended by Dy and elusive former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, he said.

He said Mrs. Arroyo asked the election officials to "help and support her in the coming 2004 presidential election."

Zuce claimed that after the meeting, former Lubao, Pampanga mayor Lilia Pineda, wife of suspected jueteng lord Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda, distributed envelopes containing money to the election officials in the presence of the President.

Mrs. Arroyo has denied that the dinner-meeting and the bribery ever took place.

Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said Dy’s testimony would be needed to support Zuce’s statement.

He said the former governor may appear either during the House justice committee hearings on the impeachment complaint or in the impeachment trial if the petition reaches the Senate.

Residents of Cagayan Valley, however, are not pleased with plans to bring Dy to the witness stand against Mrs. Arroyo, according to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

Reginald Ugaddan, Bayan-Cagayan Valley official, said Dy himself "is guilty of massive cheating in the 2004 elections, particularly in Isabela."

Aside from Dy’s alleged attempt to manipulate the votes garnered by rival gubernatorial candidate Grace Padaca, Ugaddan said "there is strong evidence linking the Dy dynasty’s involvement in the strafing and burning down of municipal voting precincts in the towns of San Mariano and Jones, also in Isabela."

During Dy’s term, Ugaddan said the people of Cagayan Valley protested against the cassava plantation program, a scheme that would allot 300,000 hectares to Danding Cojuangco’s San Miguel Corp. and deprive hundreds of thousands of farmers of rights to their land.

Buying witnesses

Other minority members echoed the accusation of Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz that Malacañang was buying jueteng witnesses who may be asked to testify in the impeachment hearings.

Citizens Battle Against Corruption party-list Rep. Joel Villanueva said the Palace has launched its own version of the "witness protection program."

"They are offering money, livelihood and other incentives to jueteng witnesses to recant their testimonies and dissuade them from appearing in the impeachment proceedings," he said.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said there is a parallel operation geared towards "buying" congressmen. He said the objective of this operation is to deprive the impeachment complaint of the required signatures needed to send it to the Senate for trial.

Pasig City Rep. Robert Jaworski Jr. accused Malacañang of using "lies to condition… the public that all these accusations against the President are false. They use goons and gold to coerce witnesses to withdraw their testimonies. Without witnesses, the House committee on justice will have the excuse to clear Mrs. Arroyo."

Jaworski is among several congressmen from the majority bloc who have joined calls for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation.

New witness

Lacson said the new witness that will be presented by the minority bloc when the Senate resumes its jueteng inquiry tomorrow has "direct knowledge" of what transpired in last year’s presidential polls, where jueteng proceeds were allegedly used to ensure that Mrs. Arroyo emerged as the winner.

"He will testify on what he knows about the connection between jueteng and electoral fraud. So in more ways than one, he’s going to corroborate the testimony of... Zuce," he said.

Lacson said the witness decided to come out after he was "egged (on) by young officers" to reveal what he knows about jueteng and election operations.

He added that members of the minority are preparing a letter asking Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., who chairs the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, to include the new witness in the committee’s next hearing.

In a related development, Lacson denied allegations that he sent former police general Julius Yarcia to convince Dy to testify against Mrs. Arroyo.

He said he had not talked with Yarcia since he left the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2001 when then President Joseph Estrada was ousted from office.

Two provincial election officials from Luzon recently claimed that Lacson had been enlisting false witnesses to testify against the President.

Gilbert Palogan, a Comelec official from Bulacan, and Ferdinand Gerardo of Pampanga, said they were both offered money and a US visa by Yarcia in exchange for a false written testimony that Arroyo conspired with election officials to cheat her way to victory in last year’s election.

Meanwhile, PNP chief Director General Arturo Lomibao denied giving orders for a ranking official to escort former Malacañang executive Datu Ahmad Bayam to a press conference meant to discredit Zuce, a former staff of Bayam.

"I did not know that. I did not give any order," Lomibao said when asked by The STAR about reports that Senior Superintendent Asher Dolina, chief of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region, in civilian clothes, had escorted Bayam to Richmonde Hotel in Pasig City last Saturday for a press conference last Saturday.

After about an hour, Lomibao phoned The STAR to say that Dolina had told him he was at the press conference "to give police assistance."

The STAR tried to contact Dolina, but both his mobile phones were switched off. Police officials close to Dolina claimed he was there to get the affidavit of Bayam, who claimed his signature was forged in the documents presented by Zuce last week. — With Christina Mendez, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Artemio Dumlao