CCTA leaders may face sedition charges

Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. and other leaders of the so-called Citizens’ Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA) could be prosecuted for sedition for staging a mock trial of President Arroyo, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita warned yesterday.

Staunch Arroyo supporter Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said the CCTA, which Guingona heads, also risks incurring the ire of the Supreme Court, which issued a ruling on the poll fraud accusations in September.

The National Bureau of Investigation is closely monitoring the mock trial, which is meant to air poll fraud charges dismissed last September by the House of Representatives, according to a source in the NBI.

The Department of Justice had also said it would be monitoring the proceedings for seditious statements.

Arroyo aides have called the mock trial — which carries no legal weight — a "kangaroo court" and urged its organizers to disband it immediately.

Ermita said the CCTA’s so-called "people’s court" could incite acts of sedition.

"The organizers of the People’s Court may be held liable for Inciting to Sedition under Article 142 of the Revised Penal Code," Ermita said in a memorandum. "Upon filing of the appropriate criminal case, the proceedings of the People’s Court may be subjected to preliminary injunction under Rule 58 of the Rules of Court."

Guingona, an estranged Arroyo ally, opened the "trial" proceedings at the state-run University of the Philippines last Tuesday, during which opposition supporters beat up hecklers supportive of Mrs. Arroyo.

The mock trial was convened to air charges of election fraud, corruption and alleged human rights abuses by President Arroyo, after she survived an opposition-sponsored impeachment vote in September.

Inciting to sedition is punishable by a six-month prison term under the penal code.

Santiago said the people’s court organizers risk being cited for contempt by the Supreme Court because there is a pending petition with the High Tribunal questioning the dismissal of the impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo by the House of Representatives.

"In that case, to hold a mock trial on the very same issue might be running the risk of committing so-called indirect contempt in the rules of court, which is that there is contempt when any action tends to degrade the administration," the former Quezon City regional trial court judge explained.

Santiago agreed with Ermita that the proceedings border on inciting to sedition.

"It is an effort on the part of the opposition to shift the spotlight from the President to their grievances. There is always a battle going on for publicity between an administration and the opposition, and this is one of the legit weapons they have invented, a media gimmick," she said. "All these constitute a crime of sedition, so they will have to be very careful."

Even arch Arroyo critic Sen. Panfilo Lacson shared Santiago’s view, saying it may be viewed as seditious even if the organizers’ intentions are legitimate.

"Let’s face it. This is a propaganda show by the parties involved," Lacson said.

Last Monday, lawyer Oliver Lozano, who filed one of three impeachment complaints against Mrs. Arroyo, asked the Supreme Court to cite Guingona for contempt for organizing the people’s court.

In his petition, he said the mock trial "is an insult to the Supreme Court that has taken jurisdiction over the impeachment petition for review on certiorari," which Lozano filed.

In September, the High Tribunal threw out a petition filed by Lozano and another filed by lawyer Ernesto Francisco seeking to overturn the House vote on the impeachment complaint.

Yesterday, a former NBI official told the people’s court on its second day that Mrs. Arroyo cheated her way to victory by rigging vote tallies of election returns.

Segundo Tabayoyong, who once headed the NBI’s documents analysis section, claimed that the Arroyo administration tampered with thousands of election returns to manipulate the poll outcome.

"Why the election returns? The ER is the basic source of documents in elections since it reflects the tally of votes cast at the precinct level," Tabayoyong said at the proceedings.

"Tampering (with) the ERs, statements of votes, and the certificate of canvass is a more subtle and more economic process" which Tabayoyong described as "second-generation election fraud," and "the first of its kind in the last 40 years of Philippine electoral fraud."

Vote-rigging methods in past elections involved stealing ballot boxes in areas where a candidate was expected to win, switching ballot boxes with ones containing tampered ballots, enlisting illegal voters and rigging vote tallies.

Tabayoyong said many election returns in last year’s presidential election indicated "they were prepared under conditions afforded for the benefit" of Mrs. Arroyo and her running mate, Vice President Noli de Castro.

He did not elaborate, however.

Tabayoyong’s testimony came after former solicitor general Frank Chavez testified before the CCTA that the administration allegedly used state funds to bolster Mrs. Arroyo’s election campaign.

He said the Department of Agriculture, through Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante, released P729 million in February 2004 that was meant for farmers under a government agricultural program.

As much as 90 percent of the funds, however, were allegedly diverted to the Arroyo election campaign, politicians and non-existent agricultural projects and non-existent suppliers.

Danilo Ramos, secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, added that the liquid fertilizer actually purchased with the funds was unnecessarily expensive. "Worse, these liquid fertilizers are good only for orchids," he added.

Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano said government records showed that his office was purportedly allocated P3 million from the fund but he never received the money.

"We want a probe into the Commission on Audit report, but the House of Representatives has developed an allergic reaction to investigations after the impeachment fever," Cayetano said. "The House of Representatives’ refusal to engage in an investigation only proves that the majority there do not want the truth to come out."

Meanwhile, members of pro-Arroyo group Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy again tried to disrupt the proceedings, held at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, but were stopped.

"These groups are invited to participate in the proceedings, provided that they observe proper decorum and are sincere in their intentions seek the truth from facts," said Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III, a CCTA spokesman.

Fisticuffs marred the opening day of the so-called "people’s court" when several members of the pro-Arroyo group heckling the proceedings. Two of the hecklers were beaten up by irate participants.

The opposition, of which deposed President Joseph Estrada is the de facto leader, has been waging a five-month-old campaign to oust Mrs. Arroyo over the poll fraud charges. Estrada is being detained on massive corruption charges. — With reports from Christina Mendez, Evelyn Macairan, Katherine Adraneda, AFP