5 Basilan poll officers face raps for vote-padding

Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos ordered yesterday the filing of criminal and administrative charges against the election officer of Basilan and four other people for allegedly tampering with the results of the party-list elections in 2004.

Abalos said charges of vote-padding are now being prepared against Basilan board of canvassers (BOC) chairman Borromeo Patangan, vice chairman Benjamin Lee and secretary Leticia Rubio, and tabulators Candelaria Samson and Annabelle Baradino.

Abalos said the five poll officers allegedly tampered with the election results in favor of party-list group Visayas Farmers Party (Agrifil).

The seven-man Comelec en banc earlier ordered the setting aside of the Basilan certificate of canvass based on the complaint of party-list group Anak Mindanao.

Abalos said the Comelec legal department found out that the Basilan BOC allegedly added 90,000 votes to the tally of Agrifil.

"The irregularity was discovered because the results of the party-list elections showed there were more votes than the actual (number of) voters," he said.

Meanwhile, Abalos said the Comelec is preparing for a separate investigation to "establish the true facts" of the wiretapped conversations.