Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Poll officials to file raps v. 'payoff' witness
MANILA -- All 13 regional directors of the Commission on Elections are suing jueteng bagwoman Sandra Cam and former Palace aide Michaelangelo Zuce for libel, denying charges that they accepted bribes to ensure President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's win in he 2004 presidential race.
"We know that there is a relentless effort to unseat the President, but the Comelec is being dragged into this mess," said Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos at a press conference Tuesday.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales Sr. said Zuce is a manufactured witness and could have been paid to besmirch the name of the President and bring down her administration.
Another Palace official, Presidential adviser on political Affairs Gabriel Claudio, said in a radio interview that Zuce had confided to a former co-worker that the opposition offered him a large sum to implicate the President in the alleged bribery, just a few days before he went public with his story.
Abalos denied in Tuesday's press briefing claims by Zuce that poll officials were bribed at the President's La Vista, Quezon City residence in January 2004 while Arroyo watched.
He also said most of the directors that Cam and Zuce implicated are in Mindanao, but said they are preparing charges against the two whistle-blowers.
Attendance sheet
In a press conference attended by all five Comelec commissioners, Abalos confirmed Zuce's story that poll officials met in December 2002 in Tubod, Lanao del Norte with former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, but said this was for a sports festival organized by the controversial poll official, who was director for Region 10 at the time.
"The 23 signatures that Mr. Zuce showed were in fact the attendance sheet of the Comelec officials who attended that sports festival," Abalos said. "In fact, I was there and so was Commissioner Rusurreccion Borra."
Borra, for his part, emphasized that the sports fest was not held during an election period.
"The list was used for the purpose of destroying the Comelec," Borra said. "And I am sorry for Mr. Zuce. He took the wrong move. We will take the proper step to vindicate the name of the Comelec as a constitutional body."
Abalos, for his part, reiterated his call for Garcillano to come out of hiding and tell the truth. "Mr. Garcillano, please come out now. You created this mess; clean it too."
Abalos said Garcillano had used the December 2002 event as a way of impressing the Comelec officials. "He was bragging," Abalos said. "Because of a commissioner, the entire commission has been ruined."
System meetings
Abalos also said the conferences before the 2004 elections were called to tackle the sudden shift from a computerized system to a manual process, after the Supreme Court nullified the Comelec's contract for automated vote-counting machines.
Abalos added that he confronted Metro Manila director Ferdinand Rafanan who was quoted as saying he had heard of the La Vista payoff "from a reliable source."
"That's why I confronted him (and said), don't you think you are contradicting yourself? You said it was a reliable source, yet you tell people that it's hearsay and not to believe it," Abalos said.
Asked if he was disappointed by Garcillano's appointment as a commissioner, Abalos quipped: "It was not us who appointed him to the commission, so it's not for us to say that we regret it."
None of the commissioners at Tuesday's press conference said they knew Zuce.
Rank and file employees and guards at the Comelec Intramuros headquarters, however, said they know him as an employee detailed to Garcillano.
"When we saw him on television, we immediately recognized him," a security guard told Standard Today on condition of anonymity.
Manufactured witness
At the Department of Justice, Gonzalez said Zuce was a manufactured witness, adding that an ordinary Palace employee could not be privy to goings-on at the First Family house in La Vista.
Zuce, reportedly a distant relative of Garcillano, said last Monday that former Lubao, Pampanga mayor Lilia Pineda, wife of suspected jueteng lord Rodolfo Pineda, gave bags full of jueteng payoffs to elections officials to ensure the victory of Arroyo in the May 2004 presidential elections.
He corroborated the testimony of Senate witness Sandra Cam that jueteng money had been distributed to Comelec regional officials before the presidential polls.
Gonzales said the President is now thinking of formally defending herself from these attacks by pressing charges, but he did not elaborate.
Claudio, meanwhile, said the former undersecretary who was told by Zuce about the opposition's offer would surface shortly to tell his story.
Also Tuesday, a former mayor from the town of San Fernando, Masbate, called a press conference to accuse Zuce of duping him of P1.5 million in 2001.
Charito Abapo said Zuce, claiming to be a relative of Garcillano, offered to help him with his election petition for P1.5 million, but failed to deliver a favorable decision. Abapo contested the results after losing in the May 2001 local election in Masbate.
Weak case?
Commenting on Zuce's claims, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said the testimony is weak because it can easily be contradicted by former Presidential Liaison Officer for Political Affairs Jose Ma. Rufino.
Noting that Rufino is in the intensive care unit with liver cancer, Santiago said President Arroyo's lawyers should file a petition for a perpetuation of testimony in any Metro Manila Court, so that Rufino's deposition could be taken.
Earlier, the Palace had released a statement signed by Rufino contradicting Zuce's account. The statement perplexed the press, however, because Rufino had been described as being in critical condition, and Palace officials could not explain how the letter was prepared.
Santiago, a former regional trial court judge, said Zuce's testimony is weak also because he took one-and-a-half years to come forward. "This is unacceptable under the Supreme Court rulings," she said.
She also noted that Zuce's motive seemed to be revenge because he was forced to resign because of absenteeism.
The lawyer of Pampanga provincial board member Lilia Pineda, wife of suspected gambling lord Bong Pineda, also denied Zuce's statements that she distributed bribes to Comelec regional directors.
Lilia Pineda, who is still in the United States, had denied similar charges made by Cam. (Manila Standard Today/Sunnex)
(August 3, 2005 issue)
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