Comelec asks NBI to investigate website

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) called on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into a website where the supposed email communications of President Arroyo and a Cabinet member with poll officials was posted detailing alleged electoral fraud operations.

The website, http://cheatinginc.host-ed.net/, identified Mrs. Arroyo as “chairman of the board” of “Cheaters Incorporated” with Interior and Local Government Sectary Ronaldo Puno as chief executive officer and Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner “Nicodemu (sic)” or Nicodemo Ferrer, Armando Velasco, Lucenito Tagle and Rene Sarmiento as board members.  

The website posted supposed email exchanges between them, posted by “concerned people.”

The website also carries a supposed email from one Gary Haraway, a “foreign IT expert whom Puno would consult if they ran into technical problems.”  

Haraway was allegedly giving Puno in the email letter some instructions on how to load the compact flash card in the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines apparently to manipulate poll results.

Sarmiento and Ferrer have denied sending any email or talking with Puno, claiming that they both had not met him personally.

Branding the website as “Koala paper,” Sarmiento said it was only part of a “grand design to undermine our electoral process, discredit Comelec and stain the victory of the winning candidates.”

Sarmiento urged the NBI to identify the people behind the website and charge them for libel and election offense under the Omnibus Election Code.

In an email dated March 12, 2010, a worried Puno was supposedly telling Mrs. Arroyo that one William Burns of the US State Department was coming to “observe the upcoming elections” as recommended by “State Department Hilary Clinton to Pres. Obama.”

Puno was supposedly stating his concerns that the US delegation would uncover the fraud operations and limiting their observation “might as well be an admission of guilt.”

He said the US delegation already knew about “Smartmatic’s move to disable the UV (ultraviolet) Ray Reader” to distinguish a genuine from a spurious ballot.

Puno said the move “was supposedly confidential and yet they know about it, which points to the fact that we discussed that there is a mole among our people.”

“Lastly, if they put their backs behind to finding out the true state of our Power Situation, we might as well be sitting ducks. We need to discuss this matter immediately,” the website partly reads.

The email showed that Puno would be consulting the Supreme Court over constitutional provisions on the possibility of an election failure but only for the positions of president and vice president.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has begun investigation into allegations of poll fraud operations between Puno and Ferrer.

Justice Secretary Alberto Agra said he had already directed the NBI to conduct a fact-finding probe into this issue and is hoping recommendations will be submitted next month.

Agra said he obtained a copy of the compact disc containing the supposed wiretapped phone conversation between Puno and Ferrer.

Agra said the disc has been turned over to NBI Director Nestor Mantaring.

Both Puno and Ferrer denied that they were the persons in the phone conversation discussing poll fraud operations.

“Once the NBI wraps up the probe, it will submit its report to the DOJ for review. Once the DOJ finds probable cause, the next step is the filing of information in court,” Agra said.

Agra said they could finish the investigation by June 15.