‘There cannot be closure to all the scams in the Arroyo administration unless we know the truth about the “Hello Garci” operation.’
I DON’T know if Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano has a hidden agenda in questioning the refusal of Chairman Sixto Brillantes of the Commission on Elections to his call for revival of the investigation on the “Hello Garci” scandal but I see the merits of his proposal because all the anomalies that are now coming out can be traced to Gloria Arroyo’s original sin which was stealing the presidency.
Nothing can be more eloquent than the fiery accusation of Susan Roces, widow of Fernando Poe Jr.: “You stole the presidency not once but twice!”
All that Arroyo could say was, “I am sorry.” To this day, we don’t know what she was sorry about.
FPJ was the second victim of Arroyo’s theft of the people’s mandate. The first was Joseph Estrada, from whom Arroyo grabbed power in 2001 with the help of civil society groups that have since discovered her true colors and have become her critics.
Cayetano is also questioning why two of Gloria Arroyo’s dependable lieutenants (there were a few more, media investigation showed) in the manipulation of the 2004 elections, former Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos and former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano were able to get their retirement benefits.
“Both Chairman Abalos and Commissioner Garcillano were able to get their retirement benefits of P2.9 million and P3.1 million respectively. Not only that but their monthly pensions trickle in regularly,” he said.
He said further: “They were instruments in cheating the Filipino people, but now we are paying them continuously.”
Cayetano does not find acceptable the passive reasoning of Brillantes, who ironically was FPJ’s lawyer, that the clearing of Abalos and Garcillano happened before he became Comelec chair.
Nor is the senator convinced by the justification of Comelec spokesman James Jimenez who said the Commission had investigated the scandal and found nothing to prove the guilt of the two and other Comelec officials.
“What would you expect from an ‘investigation’ under the Abalos commission?” Cayetano asked.
At least five plunder charges have already been filed against Arroyo. Well and good. But she had not been made accountable for the greatest theft that she committed which was the stealing of the people’s mandate in the 2004 elections that has spawned a number of crimes against the Filipino people.
It should be recalled that since she took the presidency in 2001 without being elected by the people, she was anxious to get an electoral mandate. In so doing she used the whole government machinery thereby perverting the essence of the democratic exercise. As revealed during the investigation of the “Hello Garci” controversy, Arroyo diverted public funds to finance the massive operation to subvert the electoral process.
Political analysts observed that Gloria Arroyo must have spent at least P10 billion for her great electoral heist.
Sources of her 2004 election operation included P2 billion for agriculture including the P728 million for fertilizer; the road users tax, the PhilHealth fund, and public works money. As the Aquino team goes through the documents, we are now seeing proofs of what were just being talked about before: the use of money from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
The subversion of the electoral process started long before Election Day with the tampering of the voters list and bribing election supervisors.
But they were shocked when the election results came in that their massive cheating operation in the Visayas and Mindanao were not enough to offset the lead posted by FPJ. That’s when the Arroyo called on Garcillano to get more votes.
Recall this conversation between Arroyo and Garcillano 9:43 a.m., May 29, 2004:
Garci: Ok Ma’am. Mas mataas hi siya pero magcompensate pos a Lanao yan.
GMA: So I will lead by more than one M, overall?
Garci: More or less, it’s the advantage Ma’am. Parang ganun din ang labas.
GMA: It cannot be less than one M?
Garci: Pipilitin Ma’am natin yan.
To do that, with the help of the military, the election operators tampered the certificates of canvass which were the ones used in the Canvassing of Votes for the Presidential and Vice-presidential race. That’s where the “Noted” of then Rep. Raul Gonzales (who later became Arroyo’s justice secretary) and Sen. Francis Pangilinan had the important role in the rush proclamation of Arroyo as winner.
The cheating operation did not end there.
When FPJ filed an election protest, they were worried that when the election returns would be opened, the tampering of the COCs would be exposed. So they launched another major operation to manufacture fake ERs to match the tampered COCs.
The fake ERs were then brought to the Batasan where the genuine ERs were being kept. The switching operation was carried out by members of the Special Action Force (SAF), an elite combat unit of the Philippine National Police.
Arroyo’s cheating in the 2004 elections has spawned many more crimes against the Filipino people. Why else was Abalos involved in the $329 million NBN/ZTE deal but as a reward for job well done in the 2004 elections?
Why did the Ampatuans of Maguindanao, who delivered the needed votes for Arroyo and her candidates, believe that they could act with impunity that murderous day in November 2009?
A number of military and police careers and lives were shaken by Arroyo’s enlistment of the uniformed personnel participation in rigging the 2004 election, something that not even strongman Ferdinand Marcos dared to do.
There cannot be closure to all the scams in the Arroyo administration unless we know the truth about the “Hello Garci” operation.
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Blog:www.ellentordesillas.com
E-mail:ellentordesillas@gmail.com
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