Koko heads poll reform committee

MANILA, Philippines - A victim of election cheating that had deprived him of his Senate seat for four years, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is now at the forefront of efforts to clean up the electoral system with his appointment as chairman of the newly created Senate committee on electoral reforms and people’s participation.

The Senate on Wednesday approved the creation of the new committee, a spin-off from the committee on constitutional amendments, revisions of laws and codes. Pimentel has also been named chairman of the committee on games and amusement. The creation of the new committee brings to 38 the total number of committees in the Senate.

He was recently sworn in to replace Juan Miguel Zubiri who gave up his Senate seat before the Senate Electoral Tribunal could decide on his electoral protest.

It was the second time for the committee on electoral reforms to split from a bigger group.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said the committee used to be part of the merger of the committees on constitutional amendments and on revision of codes.

“At this point, the chamber in a caucus has decided to again create the Committee on Electoral Reforms to stand on its own and the jurisdiction is presented to the body. In effect this will amend the rules of the Senate and formally, this will become number 38 in the rules,” Sotto said.

He said the new committee will have 11 members and will attend to matters pertaining to election laws and to the implementation of the constitutional provisions on referendum, on legislative acts, recall of officials, the role and rights of peoples’ organizations as well as sectoral or party-list groups.

As the Senate gears up to strengthen legislation on poll cleanup, the Makati Business Club issued a statement yesterday urging the government to implement reforms in the electoral system.

The MBC said recent events like the resignation of Zubiri and the proclamation of Pimentel have brought to light the dismal state of the country’s electoral system.

“While some may consider the matter closed after the Senate Electoral Tribunal released the results of its investigation confirming the true count of the 2007 electoral exercise, in fact we should delve deeper into how these anomalies occurred and who was responsible for them,” the MBC said.

It said the resurfacing of former Commission on Elections supervisor Lintang Bedol and former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano should be an opportunity for the Comelec to get to the bottom of allegations of systematic fraud in the 2004 and 2007 elections.

“We welcome the formation by the Department of Justice and Comelec of the joint panel that will investigate allegations of the rigging of election results in 2004 and 2007,” the MBC said. “The DOJ and Comelec must ensure that a thorough, transparent, and impartial probe be undertaken so that the restoration of the people’s trust in our electoral processes can begin.”

Mayuga report

Meanwhile, the joint DOJ-Comelec probe panel will include the Mayuga Report in its investigation into the alleged rigging of results - with the help of some ranking military officials - of the 2004 presidential elections.

The Mayuga Report contains the findings of

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on the alleged military involvement in manipulating the results of the 2004 elections to ensure the victory of then President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo over closest rival veteran actor Fernando Poe Jr.

“We should review the report, especially the annexes. If there was really a cover-up (of election cheating), then it should come out in the investigation now,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said in a press briefing yesterday.

The report was named after the leader of AFP probe panel, then Navy Flag Officer in Command Mateo Mayuga.

“The report is not lengthy, but there were many annexes. It seems there are many points there that were not pursued or discussed or even taken into consideration,” she pointed out.

She said the DOJ-Comelec fact-finding body, whose members will be named today, would assess “if they need to add to those and refute some of the findings in the report.”

De Lima also stood by her decision to personally supervise the panel’s investigation into allegations of poll fraud despite criticism from former justice secretary Raul Gonzalez.

“I’ve been institutionalizing policy in the department - that we should not be confined to prosecution of cases but should also boost our case-building functions,” she explained.

The five-man preliminary investigating committee chaired by DOJ’s Prosecutor General Claro Arellano convened last Wednesday and agreed to have its recommendation reviewed by the Comelec convened as a whole. He also clarified that De Lima will have no role in the preliminary investigation.

The committee also decided in its first closed-door meeting to apply the same rules and procedures in an ordinary preliminary investigation in resolving the poll fraud

charges, according to member Laguna Provincial Prosecutor George Dee.

“We are still in the stage of laying down the ground rules, including the determination of what particular laws would be covered by the investigation. We also need to formulate a time table,” he told reporters in an interview.

He also said they have yet to come up with a list of resource persons to be summoned in the probe.

“We already discussed that and we have some ideas as to who would be summoned. But it’s too early to announce the names because that would come out at the start of the preliminary investigation proper,” Dee explained.

With Arellano and Dee in the committee are Comelec law department head Ferdinand Rafanan, poll body lawyer Michael Villaret, and Pasig City Prosecutor Jacinto Ang.

No cover-up

Even before the joint DOJ-Comelec panel could begin its investigation, a member of the Mayuga board was already denying cover-up of alleged poll anomalies in 2004.

“I don’t think there was a cover-up. We did not discuss anything about cover-up,” Emilio Marayag, a retired Navy officer and a member of the Mayuga board, said.

“I did not receive any instruction to make cover-ups,” he said.

“We don’t see any intent for cover-up. What we can tell you is the armed forces will cooperate with any investigating body,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Commodore Miguel Rodriguez said.

On Wednesday, Bayan Muna party-list representatives Neri Colmenares and Teddy Casiño alleged that the Mayuga report concealed evidence of military involvement in the poll fraud. Yesterday, the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) urged the Aquino administration to conduct an independent review of the Mayuga Report.

Marayag, now president of the Armed Forces’ Retirement and Separation Benefits System, said critics of the Mayuga report should find time to study the findings.

“We studied that for a long time. In fairness to us, if we spend about four months looking at the investigation, they should spend a lot of time also, looking at, reading the report, even check whether these are within the due process,” he said.

“It is unfair really that the armed forces will take again the cudgel of defending itself when we just tried our best,” he added.

Defense department spokesman Col. Hernando Iriberri, meanwhile, said active officers mentioned in the Mayuga report may be asked to shed light on the controversy.

He said Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin has ordered the panel tasked to revisit the findings of the Mayuga board to fast-track its review.

“The committee is doubling its effort to speedily finish the review and will fully cooperate with the joint DOJ (Department of Justice) - Comelec investigation and any investigation that the legislature will conduct on the matter,” Iriberri said.

At Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said proper authorities would review the documents attached to the Mayuga report.

“I think the evidence was not in the report itself. The evidence is found in the various documents that are part of the report. The (pieces) of evidence are in the documents so anybody can see through the documents and come up with an analysis of the Mayuga report,” Lacierda said.

Starting point

For some senators, the Mayuga report should be used as a jump-off point for investigations into allegations of poll anomalies during the previous administration.

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, senators Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honasan and Antonio Trillanes IV all agreed that the Mayuga report was unable to unmask the real culprits behind the poll anomalies.

“It confirms our original suspicion, allegation and suspicion that there was a cover-up in the 2004 cheating, and in fact, we will ask the Palace to get the names of the officials involved… who were even rewarded with public positions,” Cayetano said in an interview.

Cayetano called President Aquino to track down who among the officers believed to be behind the poll fraud had been given juicy positions under the Arroyo administration to buy their cooperation and silence.

“This became a ticket to get juicy positions for those who were involved,” the minority leader said.

“I am looking forward to the hearing of the Senate on poll fraud in 2004 and 2007 but the release of the Mayuga report is a good first step… I am hoping the Gonzalez report on Hello Garci will also be released,” Cayetano said.

“The Mayuga report is an incomplete (set of) document. The people who interviewed the soldiers shifted to other topics when they should have pursued the questioning on electoral fraud,” Escudero said for his part.

Honasan said he found it puzzling that government authorities were the last to know about cheating, based on the report. He said this gives the lawmakers more reason to pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.

Trillanes said the Mayuga report was an attempt to whitewash the investigation into the poll irregularities.

“If you read that you will have your own appreciation. I can be sure of that, it’s not just being biased, the Mayuga report is part of the whitewash,” he said.

Batasan break-in probe

Meanwhile, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. announced the creation of an ad hoc committee that would investigate the alleged break-in at the Batasang Pambansa complex in 2005 where election documents on the 2004 presidential polls were reportedly stolen by some members of the Philippine National Police.

He also said the Mayuga report would have little or no bearing on the task of the panel, which starts work on Monday.

“The ad hoc committee will not determine who won or what happened in the (2004) elections. What we have are allegations on the custody of documents in the House that were replaced,” Belmonte told a news conference.

“So it is incumbent upon us to find out what really happened and what should be the consequences for those responsible. Are there people still here who may have been involved?” he said. with Ma. Elisa Osorio, Rhodina Villanueva, Paolo Romero, Aurea Calica, Alexis Romero