This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 41, November
20-26, 2005
Fourth hearing of
`People’s Court’
Three witnesses presented evidence last Nov. 16 that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
and her allies cheated in the 2004 presidential election.
By Jhong dela Cruz An independent study by a
computer expert which supported earlier claims that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s
win in the 2004 election was fraudulent, was one of the evidences presented at
the fourth hearing last Nov. 16 of the Citizens’ Congress for Truth and
Accountability (CCTA). Robert Verzola’s “The True
Results of the Philippine Presidential Election Based on the NAMFREL Tally,”
published in the November 2004 issue of Kasarinlan, a quarterly
publication of Third World Studies Center at the University of the Philippines
(UP), concluded that the 2004 presidential election tally was biased for
President Arroyo. Match Verzola, an official
observer of the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), said that the
results of the 2004 elections were marred by massive padding and discrepancy in
favor of Arroyo. His study matched the
circumstances in the allegedly wiretapped conversations between Arroyo and then
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. The mostly
southern provinces mentioned in the conversations – where the late presidential
candidate and actor Fernando Poe, Jr. (FPJ) reportedly won – were also the ones
where Verzola noticed huge discrepancies. According to him, cheating
occurred after the votes were counted at the precinct level and the more than
216,000 election returns proved to be more credible than the 177 certificates of
canvass which were counted at the national canvassing in the House of
Representatives. He identified provinces of
Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur and Sulu (all located in Mindanao) where
“reversal of leads” took place. He reported that in those areas, about 41 to 75
percent differences were tampered in favor of Arroyo. Other areas were Tawi-tawi,
Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte, Saranggani, Romblon and Zambales. He said Namfrel was
apparently “sympathetic” to Arroyo during the elections, where huge
discrepancies were evident in Arroyo’s bailiwicks. He noted that farmed-out
votes mostly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Ilocos and
Central Visayas were counted at a hundred or over a hundred percent in favor of
Arroyo. About 600,000 were
“tampered” votes in Mindanao to augment Arroyo’s votes, and 463,000 in Ilocos
and Central Visayas. “There were about five million votes that were not properly
tallied, four million in pro-FPJ areas and only one million in GMA areas,” he
said, explaining that the Namfrel tally was only 83 percent complete. In the National Capital
Region alone, FPJ’s lead was understated with some one million votes uncounted.
He stressed that the 681,000 lead by GMA recorded by Namfrel, was bound to go
down due to discrepancies. Apology Teary-eyed former social
welfare department secretary Dinky Soliman on the other hand testified at the
CCTA that no less than Macapagal-Arroyo’s cabinet and public resources were used
for her former boss’ candidacy in the election. She revealed that cabinet
members met regularly once every two weeks in January 2004 to map out plans to
bolster Arroyo’s bid in areas known to be strongholds of FPJ, her closest
opponent. From this time up to March 2004, she said, government agencies were
keen on implementing projects that could serve as campaign propaganda for the
president. “There were meetings
chaired by the president herself but Secretary Alberto Romulo took over when she
is absent,” she said. Areas where the president are weakest were pre-determined
by a palace aide who conducts and present polls for prevailing survey results
for the office of the president. The prevailing context
among the cabinet members she said was that, “by providing government service
and maintaining good governance, GMA’s chances of winning will accelerate”. Soliman issued a public
apology and urged her former boss to do the same accounting for betraying public
trust. She also urged the middle class to act so as not to erode morality. Under
the present administration, she said that Arroyo’s allies who remain loyal have
quashed constitutional avenues for truth telling. Bogus She regretted being party
to a scam that would later appear as one of the instruments for Arroyo’s
campaign blitz. She cited the controversial distribution of Philippine Health
Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) cards, which bore Arroyo’s likeness and a
slogan, GMA para sa Masa, para sa Lahat (GMA for the masses, for all)
during the campaign period. The card, valued at P1,600 ($29.31, based on an
exchange rate of P54.59 per US dollar) to cover medical assistance to indigent
families, were purportedly flooded to areas where FPJ could win. Soliman recalled having
handed some 1,000 Philhealth cards in Pangasinan sometime in March 2004 before
the elections. The distribution to some 100 family recipients were undertaken
during meetings that were organized by political allies of Arroyo, she added. This came following a
series of cabinet meetings that tackled campaign strategies to augment the vote
for Arroyo. “We assessed that the opponent was strong in Pangasinan and that led
us to the distribution,” she said. According to her, other government agencies
also allocated funds to programs that promoted Arroyo’s candidacy in areas where
she is perceived to be “weak.” Whether the Philhealth card
distribution in Pangasinan truly reached the 30 percent lowest brackets of poor
families, she said that at that time, there was no way to verify. Asked about the source of
funds for the project, she said that the Department of Health (DOH) and the
Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) jointly initiated the project. Oversight
Maita Santiago of Migrante
International in her testimony revealed that the overseas workers’ funds were
used to prop up the Philhealth insurance. The Overseas Workers
Welfare Administration (OWWA), a government branch, apportioned its resources
worth P4 billion ($73.3 million) of Medicare funds intended for migrant workers,
for the manufacture and distribution of Philhealth cards. The campaign strategy,
according to Santiago, was hatched by former chair of Philhealth and now health
department secretary Francisco Duque III by signing a 2002 memorandum urging
Arroyo to approve Executive Order No. 182 transferring the amount to provide
health insurance to eight million indigents. She said Duque’s deliberate
attempt to hide the orchestration from the main stakeholders later came out in a
July 2003 forum in Hong Kong where Duque said that the neglect was an oversight. From January to March 2004,
roughly 27 million Philhealth cards were distributed in various areas, a figure
Arroyo boasted during campaign rallies. Next round Former Vice President
Teofisto Guingona hailed the testimonies as ones that showed “the frame of mind
of the President to survive politically.” Guingona, chair of the
CCTA’s 15-member presidium, said the hearing had so far inched closer to the
truth where testimonies have corroborated to show that there was indeed
electoral fraud committed by Arroyo’s camp. Earlier in the morning,
CCTA Floor Leader Rep. Teddy Casino reported that a group of complainants would
come to interrupt the hearing to deliver subpoenas to the people’s court
organizers. CCTA’s first hearing at UP last week was interrupted when the
pro-administration Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) interrupted the
proceedings, claiming that the peoples’ court was backed by the communists. CCTA lead counsel Atty.
Romeo Capulong said there would be two more witness in the fifth hearing day on
Nov. 23 to strengthen allegations of electoral fraud, one of which is a known
personality expert in technical matters of election paraphernalia. Various groups under the
Bukluran Para sa Katotohanan (Coalition for Truth) launched the CCTA last
November as an alternative venue to look into allegations of electoral fraud,
graft and corruption and gross human rights violations hurled against Arroyo,
after the impeachment of President Arroyo at the House of Representatives on
September 6 was killed by administration legislators. After next week’s hearing,
the presidium is expected to come up with its findings and recommendations to be
presented to the public for scrutiny, a copy of which will also be given to
President Arroyo who will in turn be given a 15-day period to answer the
allegations. Bulatlat © 2005 Bulatlat
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Witnesses Show Arroyo’s
Electoral Fraud
Bulatlat