Saturday, July 23, 2011

Truth is catching up on Migs Zubiri

BY ELLEN TORDESILLAS
MALAYA
Never have I seen Juan Miguel Zubiri, long referred to as the senator from Maguindanao looking so harassed than in his press briefing yesterday at the Senate to debunk the very damaging revelations of Zaldy Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao and Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol that they were both involved in the shaving of votes from senatorial candidates Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, Benigno Aquino III, and Alan Peter Cayetano in favor of Zubiri in the 2007 elections.
The votes that Zubiri got in Maguindanao enabled him to edge out Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III from the number 12 slot.
That’s the reason he is in the Senate and Pimentel is left struggling it out at the Senate Electoral Tribunal which last year upheld the counter-protest of Zubiri based on what he claims were irregularities in Metro Manila which to many are nothing but dilatory tactics to wear out Pimentel and for him to complete the six-year term under a fake mandate.
In yesterday’s briefing he was talking of empty ballot boxes which won’t necessarily give legitimacy to his stolen mandate.
The dissenting opinion of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio still holds true: “In Zubiri’s pilot precincts, consisting of 18,227 precincts, he was able to recover only 11,948 votes, subject to adjustments, translating to 0.66 average vote recovered per precinct. His projected total recovery is only 33,794 votes in his remaining 75% non-pilot protested precincts, or a total projected recovery of 45,742 votes in all his 70,607 counter-protested precincts.”
Carpio further said: “On the other hand, Pimentel’s net recovery in all his protested precincts is 257,401 votes. Even if we deduct the number of votes contained in the fake ballots, Zubiri’s projected net recovery cannot successfully overcome the net recovery posted by Pimentel.”
But Zubiri may finally have peace of mind because he said he expects the SET to make a decision in September and whatever the result is, he said he will no longer contest it.
Zubiri insisted that he did not cheat and it was out of his hands if someone cheated for him. (According to Ampatuan, it was Gloria Arroyo who gave the instructions to cheat the three senators.)
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No doubt the almost simultaneous testimonies of Zaldy Ampatuan and Bedol on the cheating in the 2007 elections are connected, even orchestrated.
I may not totally agree with the accusation of lawyer Harry Roque, counsel of a number of the families of the journalists who were among those killed that dreadful day of Nov. 23, 2009, of the involvement of Aquino’s cabinet officials in the plan to absolve Zaldy from the massacre, but I understand their concern that Zaldy may obtain what was nearly within his reach with the help of then acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra during Arroyo administration.
Mindanews’ Carol Arguillas also raised a question in her Facebook shoutout. “Can someone please enlighten us here in Mindanao why the interviews of Zaldy Ampatuan were embargoed for two weeks? To be aired upon the approval of the interviewee…. What was the two week period for, pray tell?”
I would also like to know.
As of now, I’d rather focus on Bedol. It was not amusing watching Benjamin Abalos, former Comelec chair, making light of Bedol’s revelations and focusing more on the election supervisor’s shady reputation.
However stained Bedol’s character is, it doesn’t detract from the truth that he performed cheating operations for certain candidates.
So far, what we have heard and read are revelations of cheating in the 2007. What I’m more interested is what Bedol can reveal about the 2004 elections. He was mentioned several times by Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano to Arroyo in the “Hello Garci” tapes when they were talking about areas where she lost.
I’m a bit worried, however, that the current Comelec Chair, Sixto Brillantes, does not seem interested in the testimony of Bedol. Isn’t he interested in finding out the truth about the 2004 elections?
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RELATED STORY:

De Lima: Bedol, Zaldy may stand as witnesses in ‘electoral sabotage’

SOPHIA DEDACE
GMA News
The Aquino administration may consider as witnesses Maguindanao massacre suspect Zaldy Ampatuan and former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol in possible election fraud cases linking former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
At a news briefing on Thursday, Justice Sec. Leila de Lima said that President Benigno Aquino III’s administration will not discount the recent exposés of Bedol and Zaldy, who both pinned Arroyo to alleged widespread cheating in Maguindanao in the 2007 elections.
“If that is duly proven, then that is electoral sabotage. Then we can consider [as witnesses] whomever, if it’s Zaldy or Lintang Bedol,” De Lima said.
Zaldy claimed that in 2007, Arroyo and husband Jose Miguel gave orders to reduce votes from senatorial candidates from the opposition, namely then-Tarlac Rep. Aquino, then-Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, and re-electionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson. The votes will then be padded in favor of the Arroyo administration’s senatorial ticket.
Zaldy said Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, an administration candidate, benefited in the alleged fraud as he got the last seat in the Senate that year.
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Bedol said it was then Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos who orchestrated the cheating in 2007. He added that Abalos and Comelec commissioners Nicodemo Ferrer and Rene Sarmiento authenticated fabricated election returns in Maguindanao.
In Thursday’s briefing, De Lima said the exposés are still subject to evaluation by a team formed by President Aquino. “That is part of the assessment, the plausibility. Because why only [come out] now?” she said.
De Lima as election lawyer
De Lima likewise said that Zaldy’s and Bedol’s statements only validated what she already knew when she was an election lawyer in 2007. She disclosed that she was the counsel for Cayetano and defeated senatorial bet Koko Pimentel.
Pimentel, son of former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., has a pending election protest against Zubiri.
De Lima, however, cleared Sarmiento from allegations that he participated in election cheating. She said Sarmiento was not present when the votes were being canvassed in General Santos City.
“If Bedol is referring to proceedings in GenSan, I think in Royal Hotel where the representatives of senatorial candidates were… I was counsel of Alan Peter, but I was not yet counsel of Koko. So they (Comelec) held the proceedings and I remember that Chairman Abalos and Commissioner Ferrer were in the proceedings. Commissioner Sarmiento was not there,” she said.
Despite having served as Pimentel’s and Cayetano’s election lawyer, De Lima said she will not inhibit from the evaluation of the information on alleged election cheating. — KBK, GMA News

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