MANILA - Thirteen election officials, including a regional election director and 5 provincial election supervisors, are facing criminal charges and disciplinary actions in connection with poll anomalies in the 2007 mid-term race, abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak has learned.The rogues’ gallery is led by current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) regional director Ray Sumalipao, who was found liable for insubordination and misconduct by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) law department.
The charges against Sumalipao and other erring poll officials are now pending before the Comelec en banc.
Already facing a case before the Ombudsman is Lintang Bedol, the former provincial election supervisor (PES) in Maguindanao. He was charged last January 2009 for “failure to account for election documents, grave misconduct and gross insubordination.”
Sumalipao and Bedol are known to be protégés of disgraced Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, who was caught on tape taking orders from President Arroyo at the height of the poll canvassing in the 2004 presidential race.
Network of fraud
The 13 erring poll staff recommended for sanction is the biggest batch so far, and it shows the Comelec’s resolve to cleanse its ranks.
The body has been criticized in the past for failing to get rid of rouge poll officials who perpetuate election fraud and anomalies in collusion with politicians.
It also comes at a time when the Comelec is making a pivotal shift from manual to automated poll system, in the hope of truly accomplishing clean and honest elections.
“The clean up is long overdue,” says a Comelec commissioner, who asked not to be named in deference to his colleagues.
Poll officials said the cases only prospered when Jose Melo took the helm of the Comelec.
The previous poll chair, Benjamin Abalos, was simply not interested in prosecuting the poll officials, a source familiar with the cases said.
At the height of the election scandal, Abalos vowed to probe and prosecute those involved in the "Hello Garci" tape, but nothing came out of it. The argument then was that the smoking gun itself could not be used as evidence since it was a wiretapped conversation, and thus, illegally sourced.
Following the scandal, Garcillano was forced out of Comelec. He may be out, but not his network of election operators.
Sumalipao and Bedol were among those caught taking orders from Garcillano, and despite their reputation, Abalos continued to appoint them to crucial positions.
As commissioner-in-charge of Mindanao in the 2007 senatorial race, Abalos named Sumalipao as regional election director of the ARMM, and Bedol as provincial election supervisor of Maguindanao.
Like a shadow trailing these two, irregularities tainted the elections there.
More network members
Because of large-scale anomalies, special elections were held Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, two provinces in the ARMM.
Overnight, Bedol matched Garcillano’s notoriety when he could not produce the municipal certificates of canvass in Maguindanao, amid reports that he manipulated election results there in favor of administration candidates.
He was found guilty for indirect contempt by the Comelec en banc, sentenced to 6 months in jail and fined P1,000. But before he could serve his sentence, Bedol went into hiding.
The Comelec has no idea of his whereabouts up to now.
Spared of media scrutiny but no less guilty, Sumalipao has so far been able to go scot-free, particularly when Abalos was still in control-- but not for long.
In October 2007, Abalos resigned as Comelec chair following the US$329 million NBN-ZTE scandal, where he allegedly tried to bribe then Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri with P200 million for the project’s approval.
Bad tiding for Garci boys
The abrupt change in Comelec leadership was bad tiding for Garcillano’s boys.
Less than a year after Melo assumed Comelec, several charges were filed against poll personnel who were involved in election anomalies in the 2007 senatorial race. Abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak got hold of the list of Comelec officials recommended for indictment.
In August last year, a resolution issued by the Comelec law department sought the indictment of Lanao del Norte provincial election supervisor (PES) Hamilton Cuevas for insubordination. This was followed by the filing in the Ombudsman of charges against Bedol that was sustained by the Comelec en banc.
The following month, Lanao del Sur PES Yasib Nasin was recommended charged for insubordination and misconduct, while North Cotabato PES Yogie Martirizar and South Cotabato Lilian Suan-Radam were both indicted for electoral sabotage.
Four election officers in Lanao del Sur, one in North Cotabato, and two election assistants were also found liable for various violations, ranging from dishonesty, illegal deletion and transfer of voters, and simple neglect of duty.
Nasib, a former assistant prosecutor, was appointed PES of Lanao del Sur by Abalos. He was reportedly highly endorsed by politicians.
Martirizar and Radam were allegedly involved in the padding of votes in North and South Cotabato to favor candidates of Team Unity, the coalition party of the administration during the 2007 polls.
A Comelec division had sustained the recommendations of the law department to charge Sumalipao and Martirizar. The two had filed motions for reconsideration.
The Comelec secretary said the rest is still being pending before the Comelec divisions.
as of 10/21/2009 1:31 AM
Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/10/20/09/garci-boys-face-raps-2007-anomalies
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