Ex-colonel says soldiers used in 2004 poll cheating

MANILA, Philippines - Retired Army Col. Jose Gamos disclosed yesterday that soldiers were used by the Arroyo administration in the rigging of results of the May 2004 presidential elections in Mindanao.

Gamos, who personally witnessed the poll fraud committed by soldiers during the 2004 elections in Sulu, said the revelations of witnesses at the recent Senate public hearings will eventually unmask the people behind the massive poll fraud anomalies.

“The truth will eventually catch up with the Arroyos and the rest of their cohorts,” said Gamos in a telephone interview, referring to former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Gamos cited disclosures made by former Shari’a Court judge Nagamura Moner before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on Tuesday, accusing the former first gentleman Mike Arroyo and former Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) chair Alfonso Cusi of being the brains behind the manipulation of election results in several areas of Mindanao in 2004.

“This is a very good development towards our search for truth,” said Gamos, who was placed under house arrest at the height of the 2004 elections for alleged electioneering charges after supposedly campaigning for a gubernatorial bet in Sulu. He was subsequently cleared in November 2004.

Gamos who was then on leave, was in Sulu pursuing a business prospect when he witnessed how the result of the presidential polls in the province were manipulated by soldiers reportedly upon instructions from higher political and military leaders.

He said the bombings that hit a poll canvassing area in Jolo forced election officials to transfer the counting of votes to the headquarters of the Army’s 104th Brigade.

Gamos said he wanted to enter the camp during the canvassing but the then commanding officer Maj. Gen. Nehemias Pajarito, now retired, refused to allow him inside the camp. Gamos said Pajarito was his classmate at the Philippine Military Academy.

Prior to the transfer of the canvassing area to the military camp, opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. was leading Mrs. Arroyo by as much as 80,000 votes.

But after the final tally of votes held inside the Army camp, Arroyo suddenly emerged as the winner in Sulu.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) gave assurance yesterday that any active military personnel who would be officially accused of involvement in the election cheating in 2004 will be held liable for their actions.

Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos, AFP Public Information Office (PIO) chief, said that military leadership is ready to present these military personnel in any official probe body.

Moner bared on Tuesday that a member of the Presidential Security Group (PSG), whom he identified as Dave, delivered P3 million to him on May 15, 2004, or at the height of the canvassing in Zamboanga City.

The money was supposedly distributed to election officers in Lanao.

He also said that he also gave P100,000 to a policeman-contact in Tawi-Tawi.

“The Armed Forces is open to any investigation and we are ready, if there are personalities to be called, to present them, this is in support to the transparency and accountability in the AFP,” Burgos said.

Burgos pointed out that the present leadership is no longer tolerating the involvement of its personnel in any misdeeds or any actions that are detrimental to the organization.

Ex-Shari’a judge seeks DOJ protection

Former Shari’a Court judge Moner has sought government protection after submitting his affidavit to the joint investigation panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Moner submitted to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Tuesday afternoon his affidavit and accused former first gentleman Mike Arroyo and other officials of the previous administration of involvement in the poll fraud operations.

De Lima said she is still assessing the credibility of Moner who also applied to be covered by the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program.

“I’m still vetting him because he appeared, reappeared and keeps reappearing and flip-flopping also. But I’m not saying at this point that he’s not credible,” she told reporters yesterday.

She cited several circumstances when Moner appeared and gave different versions of his story.

“So this new one would require a lot of evaluation, rigorous scrutiny of allegations… I don’t want our investigation to be forum or avenue of misleading or false information,” a cautious DOJ chief pointed out.

In his affidavit, Moner claimed that Mr. Arroyo handed out bribes to manipulate the poll results and ensure the victory of his wife Mrs. Arroyo against the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.

He had also implicated former interior secretary Ronaldo Puno, former CAAP chair Alfredo Cusi and former acting justice secretary Agnes Devanadera in the alleged cheating operations.

De Lima stressed that while Moner’s testimony may be crucial in the probe, its veracity should also be established.

She earlier bared that three new witnesses have surfaced and pointed to “big names” in probe into alleged cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections. She clarified yesterday that Moner is not one of them.

De Lima said their testimonies are “explosive” and are now with the joint fact-finding probe committee tasked to gather evidence to be used in the preliminary investigation on poll fraud charges.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said that the joint panel investigating the cheating in the 2004 and 2007 polls would look into the revelations of Moner.

Brillantes said they would study Moner’s testimonies before they determine if he can be tapped as a witness.

Brillantes said the DOJ-Comelec panel has been evaluating the credibility of some witnesses, including election officers, who would be part of the ongoing probe.

He said the witnesses are from the 2004 and 2007 poll fraud. “You can imagine how many we will summon,” Brillantes said.

Meanwhile, retired Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani said Moner’s testimony is good and would help uncover the truth.

He said the new witness is credible because he made the statement even if he was not going to benefit from it.

“The revelations made by Judge Moner were believable because, in reality, he would not benefit anything from his statements.” – With Edu Punay, Evelyn Macairan, Christina Mendez