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Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Editorial: Wild speculation
THERE is something alarming over reports that appear to be seemingly unrelated yet bear a common denominator; namely the much abused political exercise of elections in this part of the country.
Last Saturday the city residents were mostly caught unaware by the presence of heavily armed contingents of soldiers and police officers holing up in the VIP hotel where a group of political leaders from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (Armm) are said to be meeting.
The likely subject of that meeting would be the Armm elections scheduled on Aug. 8 that had been time and again bothered by a lot of bugs such as political and even clan differences.
According to reports the presence of these soldiers and politicos invited both alarm and curiosity on the part of the residents since it appeared that the hotel itself become another "Oakwood" should rival clans arrive and spark a shooting war with bystanders caught in the crossfire.
By coincidence or not a report that ex-Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano's wife Gracia withdrew P2 million from a bank emerged while national media was abuzz with a disclosure that Comelec officials were paid P2 million each by Pampanga jueteng overlord Bong Pineda.
As local radio station Bombo Radyo pointed out the P2 million withdrawal by Gracia may or may not have come from Pineda himself with other wags speculating that the amount may have come from the Palace itself.
The way Gracia withdrew the cash--some teller shouted "Virgilio Garcillano" to the astonishment of regular bank customers and a woman believed to be Gracia was escorted straight to the manager's office--brings people to suspect whether these two events are related.
Call it wild speculation if you will but are there attempts to rig the ARMM elections by the national government? Look, Garcillano is still unaccounted for and the Comelec's announcement to probe his alleged involvement in electoral cheating comes at a time when the ARMM polls are a few days off.
He may not be an official but that doesn't stop Garcillano from becoming invisible and stumping authorities on his whereabouts. And he may still have substantial contacts at the Comelec, which had for the most part lost public trust in the wake of the Gloria gate CD scandal.
Before we fly off the deep end however, we must reiterate that unless there is evidence proving these contentions these are at best theories. But in this day when even a President can be wiretapped these speculations may prove unwarranted.
Still these are powerful people and if they choose to ignore demands for Garcillano to be produced for questioning then certainly they have the means to tamper with the elections again.
Thus we could only exhort Armm residents to make good their pledge to help in holding Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections.
(August 2, 2005 issue)
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