MANILA, Philippines - It’s “persecution of the worst kind” to continue investigating former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo for possible links to election fraud in 2007 even after a fact-finding team has already declared the evidence against him as “hearsay,” his lawyer said yesterday.
Ferdinand Topacio was referring to a recommendation by a fact-finding team investigating alleged election fraud in 2007 to conduct further probe on Arroyo despite the absence of evidence against him. Topacio called the recommendation “a procedural anomaly.”
“If at the end of the fact-finding process, you cannot find any evidence, you dismiss the charges. Now, if there is new evidence, then you refile the charges,” Topacio said.
“This is an abomination to the constitutional right to a speedy trial and the right to due process,” he added.
He said the Aquino administration wants an “indefinite investigation” against his client even if it means having to “fabricate evidence.”
“This is not a normal investigation anymore. This is a persecution of the worst kind,” he said.
The fact-finding panel, composed of justice and elections officials, has recommended charges of electoral sabotage against former president and now Pampanga Rep. Arroyo and 46 others in connection with alleged manipulation of results of the 2007 senatorial elections.
“If the fact finding group could not find evidence, she should have cleared me. Otherwise, she is just there on a fishing expedition. They will still have to manufacture evidence versus me,” Mr. Arroyo, for his part, told The STAR.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the former first gentleman is not yet off the hook even if allegations of his involvement in poll fraud in 2007 have initially been declared hearsay by the joint DOJ-Comelec fact-finding team.
“He is not yet off the hook. That’s the purpose of fact-finding. Nothing can prevent the team from further looking for, or accepting, new or additional evidence to establish or build a case against anyone,” the DOJ chief explained to The STAR yesterday.
“If a witness or any evidence surfaces and provides a clear link of his alleged participation, then it would be up to the investigating panel to decide whether to include him in the preliminary investigation,” she explained.
The DOJ chief also pointed out that the findings of the fact-finding team were “initial,” meaning its probe would continue even simultaneously with a preliminary investigation by a separate panel also composed of justice and election officials.
Among those who linked Arroyo to cheating in the 2007 elections were former poll supervisors Lilian Radam and Yogie Martirizar, respectively of South and North Cotabato.
The two said in their separate affidavits that their handlers had told them of orders from the Palace to rig the poll results in their provinces. They mentioned “the President and the First Gentleman” several times in their separate affidavits.
Their lawyer Nena Santos revealed to The STAR that more witnesses would show up to corroborate the testimonies of Radam and Martirizar.
“They will come out during preliminary investigation or when the case is already in trial,” she said.
In its report, the fact-finding team chaired by DOJ Assistant Secretary Zabedin Azis concluded that the testimonies on hand were not enough justification to subject Arroyo to preliminary investigation.
But instead of dismissing the charges outright for lack of evidence, the panel recommended further investigation into Arroyo’s possible complicity in poll fraud.
The panel will also deliberate on a separate complaint filed by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.
The camp of Arroyo called the move “procedural anomaly.” The former first gentleman accused the Aquino administration of “already forcing the issue even without evidence or proof by fishing for more evidence.”
De Lima declined to comment on the “tirades” saying she might be accused of being biased.
She also downplayed the threat of Arroyo’s lawyers to question the validity of the fact-finding probe before the courts.
“Let’s just allow the process to take its course towards determining the truth once and for all and exacting accountability from those who dared prostitute the electoral processes and destroy the sanctity of sovereign will,” the DOJ chief urged.
She belied insinuations by former elections chief Benjamin Abalos – who has also been recommended for indictment – for insinuating that the DOJ and Comelec had coached the witnesses into tagging him and the others in the poll fraud.
“That’s preposterous! We don’t do that!” a visibly irked De Lima replied when asked to comment on the matter.
De Lima explained that the witnesses and whistleblowers “approached us in DOJ and Comelec, not the other way around.”
She also pointed out that the joint investigation was triggered by the exposés of former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol and detained former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan last July.
In a report released last Thursday, the joint fact-finding team recommended for preliminary investigation for electoral sabotage the former president, Abalos, Bedol, former poll commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, detained former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., former provincial administrator Norie Unas and several others.
Also recommended for indictment are Abalos’ former chief-of-staff Jaime Paz, former justice secretary Alberto Agra, regional poll director lawyer Michael Abas, Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Region XII director Col. Reuben Basiao, a certain Major Joey Leaban and Capt. Peter Reyes, and Radam and Martirizar.
The joint preliminary investigation panel, chaired by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, is expected to convene on Monday for the start of formal proceedings.
De Lima said the probe would “definitely conclude before Christmas at the latest.”
“You can always expect fairness from DOJ. My instruction always to our prosecutors is to do things upon the dictates of law and fairness, and go where the evidence will take them.”
Malacanang, for its part, said it hopes the recommendation to pin down Mrs. Arroyo will uncover the truth.
“We hope this case will eventually lead to the truth about what really happened during the election,” Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Office for Strategic Planning and Development said. with Delon Porcalla