They cheated in the 2004, 2007 & 2010 polls!

The Philippine Star headlined blared, “Palace striking deal with Zaldy, Bedol.” As Atty. Raul Lambino told our reporters, “It’s definite that they have negotiated a deal because these actions by officials cannot be done without the go-signal of Malacañang. I don’t understand this. There are saying they’re for Daang Matuwid yet they’ll do everything that they can, using all the resources and power, and even coddling wanted personalities involved in gruesome killings and massive irregularities just to extract statements just to please the ears of Malacañang. What they are doing is bordering on criminal conduct.”

 There is some truth to the statement of Atty. Lambino, after the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that they are set to investigate the alleged irregularities in the 2004 and 2007 elections because of what former Maguindanao Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol blurted out recently in an exclusive ABS-CBN interview. All the more now that Bedol is in the custody of the DILG.

 But if you ask me, where will this investigation bring us? If the main target of this investigation is to pin down former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) for election fraud, then perhaps you may have already forgotten that in June 27, 2005 GMA already said, “I’m sorry” about this ugly episode. Of course, you have to scrutinize her statement whether she was apologizing for talking to an election supervisor or whether she was sorry that her conversations were taped or was she sorry for cheating in the polls.

 Allow me to refresh your memory and reprint the first part or an excerpt of GMA’s statement; “For the last several weeks, the issue of the tape recordings has spun out of control. Tonight, I want to set the record straight. You deserve an explanation from me, because you are the people I was elected to serve. As you recall, the election canvassing process was unnecessarily slow even after the election results were already in and the votes had been counted.

 I was anxious to protect my votes and during that time had conversations with many people, including a Comelec official. My intent was not to influence the outcome of the election, and it did not. As I mentioned, the election has already been decided and the votes counted. And as you remember, the outcome had been predicted by every major public opinion poll, and adjudged free, fair and decisive by international election observers, and our own Namfrel.

 That said, let me tell you how I personally feel. I recognize that making any such call was a lapse in judgment, I am sorry. I also regret taking so long to speak before you on this matter. I take full responsibility for my actions and to you and to all those good citizens who may have had their faith shaken by these events. I want to assure you that I have redoubled my efforts to serve the nation and earn your trust.”

 Clearly, GMA’s “I’m sorry” speech was about her lapse in judgment, but not about cheating in the polls. So this opens up the question whether GMA cheated in the polls or not? But before we talk about cheating in the elections; it is a widely-accepted truism in this country that in our electoral system, no one loses as the losing candidates claim that they were all cheated! So technically if the winners in the polls won through cheating… then what can the Commission on Elections (Comelec) do about this problem when the cheaters are already in power?

 For sure, the DoJ has its hands full with so many cases (like the Vizconde Massacre or the Dacer-Corbito case) that they have to investigate in this country. Therefore if they will be tasked to investigate the 2004 and 2007 elections, it would be a gargantuan task because the only way that they can verify the claims of cheating is to open up every single ballot box to confirm or validate that there was fraud in that particular precinct. So what’s the DoJ timetable to finish this investigation? Even if Zaldy can prove that he cheated in the ARMM elections, can he prove that GMA cheated in that elections or Zaldy cheated for himself and merely carried the President?

 Mind you, there was a lot of cheating also in the last May 2010 elections and it’s been more than a year since the Comelec investigated so many cases of poll fraud. In fact, I asked the Comelec right after the votes were counted using the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine why there was not a single spoiled ballot in the entire island of Cebu? I never got even a courtesy reply from the Comelec. Yet many voters came out in the open telling me that their ballots were invalidated because they did not understand the procedures. Yet none of them were recorded as a spoiled ballot.

 So if there was a massive cheating in the 2010 polls, why in heavens are we going to investigate the 2004 and 2007 elections? Furthermore, under Comelec Chairman Jose Melo, they have decided not to use the PCOS machines anymore, which validates our claim that there was cheating in the 2010 elections, so why should the DoJ investigate only the previous polls?

* * *

Email: [email protected]