Koko to Comelec: Don't drop cases vs Abalos' co-accused

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III cautioned yesterday the Commission on Elections and the Department of Justice (DOJ) not to drop the electoral sabotage charges that he had filed against two lawyers of the poll body who would be turned into state witnesses against former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos.

“As far as I am concerned, lawyers Lilian Suan Radam and Yogi Martirizar were the most guilty of the accused that’s why I filed the criminal charges against them,” he told The STAR in a telephone interview from Davao City.

Radam is a former provincial election supervisor in South Cotabato while Martirizar is former election supervisor in North Cotabato.

Pimentel is determined to pursue the cases against Radam and Martirizar, the alleged operators in the tampering of votes in Cotabato that led to the proclamation of former Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri in 2007.

Pimentel is reacting to the statements made by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes that Radam and Martirizar are being considered as state witnesses.

He said when he filed the charges against Radam and Martirizar they both denied involvement in the alleged cheating, which prompted him to file the 11 counts of electoral sabotage against Radam.

When the court issued arrest warrants against the two Comelec lawyers they both went into hiding and later on surfaced at the DOJ and later implicated Abalos in the alleged poll fraud.

“An accused can point to anybody as the mastermind but that will not absolve him or her from criminal liabilities,” he said.

Pimentel’s father and namesake former senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. also shared the opinion of his son, saying that making a principal suspect a state witness might lead to the dismissal of the charges.

“It’s like making a triggerman that is responsible in a murder case, a state witness just to pin down the alleged mastermind of the crime,” he said.

Abalos said it was during his term as Comelec chairman that the case against Radam and Martirizar was initiated and later filed before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court Brant 114 under Judge Edwin Ramizo.

Radam however went into hiding after an arrest warrant was issued. She resurfaced last September at the Department of Justice.

The Comelec withdrew the charges that were earlier fled against Radam and refiled the case later at the sala of Judge Eugenio de la Cruz of Pasay RTC Branch 117, this time including Abalos as a co-accused.

Abalos said that Radam has already admitted in her sworn statement that she tampered election documents during the 2007 elections.

The complaint alleged that on May 24, 2007 during the national canvassing of votes for senators Abalos and Radam tampered and increase the votes of Team Unity candidates of the then Arroyo administration by tampering and falsifying the Provincial Certificate of Canvass of votes in the city of General Santos, towns of Polomolok, Tampakan, Tupi, Banga, Koronadal, Norala, Sto Niño, Surrallah and Tantangan.

The alleged tampered election results were submitted to the National Board of Canvasser that was then canvassing the results of the senatorial elections at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. 

Judge De la Cruz had warned the prosecutors that if they will fail again to bring Radam to the court it would be considered as waiving their right to present their witness in the electoral sabotage case.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima denied yesterday that she is meddling in the electoral sabotage case against Abalos by pushing for the dropping of charges against Radam and Martirizar, represented by lawyer Nena Santos, who is a friend of the DOJ chief.

“It’s probably not right to accuse me of meddling on that issue. Of course I can meddle because the DOJ is part of the prosecution team. We’re assisting in the prosecution and, therefore, we have a role,” she said.

Abalos’ counsel Brigido Dulay claimed that the DOJ is pressuring Comelec to drop the charges against Radam and Martirizar in exchange for their testimonies against Abalos.

Dulay said they would oppose the plan to use Radam and Martirizar as state witnesses.

The DOJ is aiding the Comelec in prosecuting the poll fraud case against Abalos and other former officials, including former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Abalos is now detained at the Southern Police District in Taguig while Arroyo is confined at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

De Lima confirmed there’s a plan to discharge Radam and Martirizar as state witnesses, but Chairman Brillantes has not yet made any decision on the proposal.

De Lima revealed that she already discussed her recommendation with Brillantes, who told her that the poll commissioners would still have to decide on it.

“To us, it all boils down to a choice between the biggest fish that is former chair Abalos and these two women who admittedly participated in the cheating. I think this is an instance where we have to choose,” she explained.

She admitted that Radam and Martirizar are the only witnesses to prove the poll fraud charges against Abalos in connection with the 2007 polls in South and North Cotabato.

“Do you think that without their testimonies we could successfully prosecute chair Abalos? We don’t know of any other witness who could point directly to him. It’s a judgment call and it’s a difficult judgment to make also but under the circumstances and premises we have to go after former chair Abalos,” she pointed out.

The DOJ chief described the indictment of 77-year-old Abalos as “once in a lifetime.”

Brillantes said he and De Lima might meet on Monday to decide on the plan to drop the charges against Radam and Martirizar and turn them into state witnesses against Abalos.

The DOJ had recommended to Comelec that Radam and Martirizar be exonerated when they surfaced in November 2011 and pointed to Abalos as the mastermind in the poll cheating in South and North Cotabato in 2007.

In a previous interview, Brillantes admitted that while the testimonies of Radam and Martirizar were vital to the cases, they were not the “least guilty” because they were the ones who did the cheating. – With Edu Punay, Sheila Crisostomo