Ombudsman urged to act on complaints vs Comelec officials

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. urged Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to start acting on the complaints against Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials involved in the anomalous purchase of ballot-counting machines that were supposed to be used in the 2004 presidential election.

Pimentel said Gutierrez should stop sitting on the case because the Office of the Ombudsman’s legal, monitoring and prosecuting division as early as October 2004 had found prima facie evidence against the officials and private parties involved.

He said that Gutierrez could start by filing the necessary charges against four of the seven Comelec officials who signed the contract with the machines’ supplier, Mega Pacific, which was meant to modernize the country’s antiquated election system.

The four officials — namely former commissioners Rufino Javier, Mehol Sadain, Ralph Lantion and Luzviminda Tancangco — have already retired so Pimentel said that the Ombudsman should have no reason to start filing cases against them.

Since the four officials have already retired, they have already lost their immunity from criminal prosecution as incumbent constitutional officials.

The three other officials still present at the Comelec are Chairman Benjamin Abalos, Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason Jr.

"I call upon Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to charge them criminally for their involvement in the anomalous Comelec modernization project," Pimentel said.

Pimentel was the first to file a complaint against the Comelec officials following the 2004 ruling of the Supreme Court that nullified the contract between the Comelec and Mega Pacific.

Pimentel said Gutierrez’s predecessor Simeon Marcelo had promised to sign the resolution on the poll automation deal shortly before he resigned on November 30, 2005.

He said it was irresponsible for the Office of the Ombudsman as the "protector of the people" to ignore the findings of its legal, monitoring and prosecution division that the contract between the Comelec and Mega Pacific was grossly disadvantageous to the government.

Pimentel said that the issuance of a resolution by the Ombudsman on the case would pave the way for the filing of graft charges against incumbent Comelec officials involved in the deal.

He said that the resolution could also be used as a basis for the filing of an impeachment complaint against Abalos, Tuason and Borra.

In 2003, the Comelec purchased nearly 200 ballot-counting machines from Mega Pacific at a cost of P1.2 billion.

However, in January 2004, the Supreme Court nullified the Comelec’s purchase contract, citing irregularities in the contract awarding.

The court also ordered the Office of the Solicitor General to recover whatever money was paid to Mega Pacific for the machines.

The court ruling, however, inadvertently derailed government plans to modernize the country’s antiquated electoral system, which is riddled with opportunities for poll fraud and takes election officials weeks for the counting of votes to be completed.

In a strongly-worded decision, the Supreme Court ordered the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate those involved in the Mega Pacific deal for possible criminal liability.

President Arroyo is currently battling opposition allegations that she cheated her way to victory in the 2004 election.

She admitted having an inappropriate conversation with an election official before Congress declared the winner but denies manipulating the poll outcome.

The ensuing political crisis sparked fears that the military might step in to resolve the impasse.