MANILA, Philippines - For the first time, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo have been directly tagged as masterminds in alleged cheating in the 2007 senatorial elections.
In a press briefing yesterday, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima presented former Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas, who claimed to have heard Mrs. Arroyo give explicit orders to then governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. to ensure a 12-0 victory for Team Unity senatorial candidates.
“Dapat 12-0 sa Maguindanao kahit ayusin o palitan nyo ang
resulta (It should be 12-0 in Maguindanao, even if you tinker with or change the results),” Unas quoted Mrs. Arroyo as telling Ampatuan. The former governor is on trial for the November 2009 Maguindanao massacre.
Also presented yesterday were 14 election officers and a computer voters’ list technician who confirmed manipulation of election results in Maguindanao.
A spokesman for the former president said the latest allegations were meant to conceal the failures of the Aquino administration.
“Again, it’s a pattern that Filipinos are getting used to, whenever the administration makes a blunder, expect a so-called exposé or allegations against the former president and her family to come out,” lawyer Raul Lambino told The STAR.
De Lima said Unas’ testimony, contained in an affidavit, was the first time that the Arroyos were “categorically and directly” linked to poll cheating. She said other pronouncements linking the two were mere “hearsays.”
“That’s very damaging. He (Unas) had first-hand knowledge and he made direct implication of the former president and the former first gentleman who gave orders to do everything to ensure 12-0, including the rigging of the election results,” De Lima said.
She said Mr. Arroyo may be placed again under watch list order. “We can issue a WLO against him. It’s possible,” she said.
Brillantes said the 14 Comelec personnel, acting as chairs of the Board of Canvassers (BOC), were tasked to canvass the election returns (ER) from each Maguindanao town in 2007.
“There are two ERs, one is for the local and one is for the national. What happened so as to ensure the 12-0 votes was that copies of the national ERs were not given to the EOs (election officers). They were taken away from them and were prepared elsewhere,” he said. The EOs later found doctored ERs at the provincial canvassing centers. Subsequent canvassing showed a 12-0 win for TU. The ERs were taken by ‘more of Gov. Andal’s people’,” Brillantes said.
He said the affidavits of the witnesses would be forwarded to the preliminary investigation committee of the joint panel for review and filing of appropriate charges.
The 14 poll personnel were Al-haj Saliao Amba of Mamasapano, Ma. Susan Albano of Datu Unsay, Nena Alid of Talayan, Alice Lim of Pagagawan, Susan Cabanban of General Salipada Pendatun, Magsaysay Mohamad of Sultan sa Barongis, Araw Cao of Mangudadatu, Estelita Orbase of Shariff Aguak, Jeehan Nur of Ampatuan, Ragah Ayunan of Rajah Buayan, Russam Mabang of Pandag, Asuncion Reniedo of Paglat, Rohaida Khalid of Datu Saudi, and Norijean Hangkal of Guindulungan.
Salonga Edzela of Guindulungan is the computer voters’ list technician.
Palace, LTA meetings
In his affidavit, Unas said that a few days before the May 10, 2007 elections, he accompanied Ampatuan to a meeting in Malacañang with Mrs. Arroyo and with TU senatorial bets and some governors.
Unas claimed he was surprised to hear Ampatuan declare in a speech that “Maguindanao is the extension of Pampanga, Maguindanao will deliver the votes.”
He recalled that when it was Mrs. Arroyo’s turn to speak, she “made a special mention and reference to Gov. Datu Andal, gesturing her appreciation.”
“When the President was about to exit from the hall as she was shaking hands with several participants, the President signaled Datu Andal to a corner and I heard the president tell Datu Andal: ‘Dapat 12-0 sa Maguindanao kahit ayusin o palitan nyo ang resulta,’ to which the governor answered, ‘Opo, Ma’am,’” Unas added.
The following day after a dinner in Malacañang, he recalled that Ampatuan received a phone call from Mr. Arroyo summoning him to a meeting in the former first gentleman’s LTA office in Makati.
“We immediately went to Makati and we arrived at the LTA building shortly thereafter. I saw FG (first gentleman) Mike Arroyo sitting behind his table with one or two other persons inside the room,” he said.
Ampatuan was called inside the room, leaving Unas behind. After a few minutes, the former governor came out of the room and they left the LTA.
“Once outside the office, Gov. Datu Andal told me: ‘Utos ni FG kelangan 12-0 ang resulta sa Maguindanao ….. at kailangan walang makuhang boto si Cayetano,” he said, referring to preferred zero votes for Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who was then critical of Mr. Arroyo.
Unas added that Ampatuan later called him and former provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol to a meeting where he “reiterated the instruction for 12-0 coming from the President and FG Mike Arroyo.”
“National candidates from LAKAS-CMD did not anymore have any campaign rally in Maguindanao. Campaign sorties of national Team Unity senatorial candidates were limited to just having a courtesy call to Gov. Datu Andal and to some mayors who were just coincidentally present when senatorial candidates came to see the governors,” Unas said.
Unas said that he resigned from his post “prior to the Maguindanao massacre” because he had “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.”
Unas, who worked for Ampatuan from 2001 to 2009, said he had no falling out with his former boss whom he had even informed of his affidavit.
“I made him and his family understand that my coming out is not about the issue but what lies behind this issue. Why is it always happening in Maguindanao and in any other Muslim provinces in the autonomous region? Why is it always our region that they see,” he said.
Unas admitted that he is scared of the possible consequences of his coming out but he is hopeful that it would be the start of “serious” reforms in the region.
“I’m afraid but I’d like to take this opportunity that my coming out would lead the way for serious efforts from the Comelec and the government to institute some needed reforms, especially on election process in Maguindanao and any ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) provinces,” he pointed out.
Lambino, meanwhile, said President Aquino was the one calling the shots in the election issues against Mrs. Arroyo.
“He (Unas) is a very convenient witness and the timing is very suspect. Only recently, P-Noy was being criticized for his absentee leadership when typhoons ‘Pedring’ and ‘Quiel’ sowed destruction in Luzon,” he said.
“The impartiality of De Lima is questionable. And it’s an open secret that she has some political ambitions for the 2013 elections so what better way to gain public attention than to hit the previous administration,” he said.
GMA hand
Another poll cheating whistleblower said Mrs. Arroyo was likely aware of the alleged switching of ERs at the Batasan compound in January and February 2005.
“We assumed she knew about it,” Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago told the House committee looking into the supposed Batasan break-in and ER switching.
“Since it was her national security adviser who ordered the operation, we concluded that she had knowledge of it and gave it her blessing,” he said.
Santiago had revealed the alleged ER switching, saying it was then national security adviser and now Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. and Marcelino Franco, his commander at the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF), who ordered him to participate in the election fraud operation.
He claimed that he and his men and a group of election operators led by one El Bello broke into the Batasan compound in early 2005 four times to switch ERs to ensure that Mrs. Arroyo won in the election protest filed against her by the late Fernando Poe Jr.
Bello is reportedly a son of a former Comelec official.
Ebdane, a former PNP chief, has denied Santiago’s allegations.
Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas raised the possibility that Santiago exposed the alleged Batasan break-in to get back at Ebdane since the Zambales governor had replaced the officer as his provincial commander last July.
“You should not picture yourselves here as heroes,” he told Santiago and his men who have admitted to being involved in the intrusion.
“You have an axe to grind against Gov. Ebdane. Why did you come out only in July, more than a year after President Aquino assumed office, when you could have done it much earlier?” Fariñas asked.
Santiago said his replacement as Zambales PNP chief had nothing to do with their exposé.
“Our coming out was providential. When the Ampatuans exposed cheating in Mindanao, we thought it was time for us to speak out. We were bothered by our conscience,” he said.
He claimed that his replacement in Zambales, although it happened in July, was part of efforts of Mrs. Arroyo’s loyalists in the PNP “to harass us, get rid of us.”
“The order for my replacement was signed July 7 or 8, but I was informed of it on July 18 while I was meeting with my police chiefs. What kind of PNP organization do we have?” he said.
Though he criticized his own organization, he chose to stay with it. He and his men are now on detail with Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.
Fariñas asked Santiago if Robredo has summoned a certain Chief Supt. Ferdie Ortega, whom Santiago said was head of the SAF unit guarding the Batasan and with whom he supposedly coordinated in the break-in.
“If I were Secretary Robredo, I would have asked this guy about your exposé since Ortega is still in active service,” he said. Ortega is reportedly assigned in Davao.
Santiago also said his former SAF superior Franco would soon support his story.
“I know him to be a principled officer. In fact, he was involved in the 2006 coup attempt,” he said.
But Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. expressed doubt on his assertion, noting his previous statement that Franco, along with Ebdane, had also ordered him to participate in the Batasan break-in.
“Assuming your story to be true, how could one who directed you to participate in an illegal activity be a principled officer?” he asked. With Paolo Romero, Jess Diaz, Sandy Araneta