The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today said that it “welcomed and respected” the move of Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri to step down from office after allegations of election fraud resurfaced in the past few weeks. The group said that the entire focus of investigations into election fraud should now be on Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her role in the fraud-tainted 2004 and 2007 elections.
“Sen. Zubiri had the delicadeza to do what Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wouldn’t do from 2005-2010, which was to resign amid questions of legitimacy and fraud. The resignation of Sen. Zubiri shows a great urgency to probe the fraud-tainted polls of 2004 and 2007, both of which had Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as principal orchestrator and beneficiary,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
“No one should be spared in the probe of the heinous crimes of stealing the elections and making a mockery of the peoples will. Everyone, from Palace officials, Comelec officials and members of the military and police should be held accountable for the cheating and its eventual cover-up. GMA is on top of that list,” Reyes said.
Bayan however doubts if Arroyo, now a member of Congress, will herself have a change of heart given the recent revelations on fraud. “Even now, it’s highly unlikely that Mrs. Arroyo will suddenly grow a conscience and reveal what she knows about election fraud,” he added.
In its May 2007 post-election report, the anti-fraud watchdog group Kontra Daya said that “there are initial indications that the Arroyo administration is engaged in large-scale electoral fraud in an attempt to secure favorable results for its candidates in the national elections (senatorial and party-list)”.
“Throughout the campaign period and right up to Election Day, Malacanang led and directed a massive campaign of vote-buying for its candidates. Malacanang has made partisan use of the military to campaign for administration candidates and against opposition groups especially the militant party lists,” the group said.
“In the period of counting and canvassing of votes, efforts to directly manipulate the election results in favor of Malacanang’s candidates and against the administration’s opponents (senatorial candidates and party-list groups) are underway”.
Kontra Daya also assailed the Comelec for its “complicity” with the Arroyo administration in perpetrating electoral fraud.
“The COMELEC laid the groundwork for electoral fraud which include among others the private printing of election forms, padded voters’ list, selective implementation of laws and the last-minute appointment of BEIs”.
“The COMELEC also aided and abetted fraud through its inaction on numerous blatant violations of election laws from the shameless vote-buying by administration officials to the blatant partisanship of the AFP. The presence and promotion of election officers previously linked to fraud in Mindanao also shows complicity to commit fraud on the part of the COMELEC,” the report said. ###
