Comelec submits tampered ERS to block GMA bail petition
Prosecutors of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) submitted yesterday to the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) the alleged tampered election returns of the 2007 mid- term elections in Maguindanao as evidence to block the bail petition in the electoral sabotage charges filed against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-arroyo in connection with al- leged poll fraud in the May 2007 midterm polls. Comelec prosecutor Maria Juana Valesa told The STAR that the poll documents submitted to Pasay Judge Jesus Mupas were election results canvassed by former Maguindanao provincial election officer Lintang Bedol that were allegedly tampered to favor the senatorial candidates of then Arroyo administration.
The election returns prepared by Bedol were set aside after the alleged cheating was reported.
The Comelec created a new board of canvassers headed by lawyer Emilio Santos.
The poll results submitted by Bedol showed that Luis “Chavit” Singson topped the senatorial elections in Maguindanao while the canvass conducted by the team of Santos showed that Juan Miguel Zubiri topped the Maguindanao elections.
Valesa said they also presented witnesses to prove that they have a strong electoral sabotage case against Arroyo and her co-accused Bedol and former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr.
Arroyo and Bedol have filed separate motions to fix bail for their temporary liberty while the trial is ongoing.
Arroyo is now detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City where she is being treated for her spinal ailment and other diseases.
Bedol is currently detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) jail in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Bedol had remained in detention at the PNP custodial center in Camp Crame, even though he had finished serving his sentence for a separate case.
Judge Mupas ordered Bedol’s continued detention as one of the accused in the electoral sabotage case.
Bedol completed last Jan. 19 a sixmonth sentence for indirect contempt after the Comelec found him guilty in 2007 for his failure to heed summons to testify in an inquiry into poll fraud in Maguindanao that year.
He only served his sentence beginning last year after he finally came out of hiding.
Bedol had also expressed his desire to become a state witness in the alleged cheating in Maguindanao during the May 2007 elections.
His lawyer Reynaldo Princesa said Bedol feared for his life and the security of his family.
Ampatuan is currently confined at the Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center (AFPMC) in Quezon City where he was transferred for medical treatment. Ampatuan was originally detained at the Bureau of Jail Management detention cell at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig, in connection with multiple murder charges filed in the Quezon City RTC against the former governor for the so-called Maguindanao massacre.
The former governor was rushed to hospital last week after he reportedly vomited blood.
Police approve hearings at VMMC
Meanwhile, police officials agreed with the proposal to hold inside the VMMC the hearings on the petition for bail of Arroyo regarding the graft case filed against her in connection with the national broadband network (NBN) anomaly.
Chief Superintendent Mario dela Vega, director of the Quezon City Police District, said holding the bail hearings at the VMMC would be easier for security reasons since the hospital compound is a contained area.
Dela Vega was reacting to reports that the prosecutors in the graft case filed against Arroyo before the Sandiganbayan were amenable to the proposal to hold the bail hearings at VMMC instead of the anti-graft court along Commonwealth Ave. also in Quezon City.
Arroyo is currently detained at the VMMC after electoral sabotage charges were filed against her in connection with alleged fraud in the 2007 elections in Maguindanao.
A separate graft case was filed against Arroyo and several others before the Sandiganbayan regarding the cancelled NBN contract of the government with Chinese telecommunications firm ZTE Corp.
The contract for the $329-million NBN project was intended to set up an Internet network that would link government agencies nationwide.
The Office of the Ombudsman has declared the cancelled NBN-ZTE deal to be overpriced and the anti-graft agency filed graft charges last December against the former president, her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo, former Department of Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza and resigned Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr.
The Sandiganbayan had issued arrest warrants against them last March 13.
Chief Superintendent Dela Vega said that elaborate security preparations are needed every time Arroyo is taken out of the hospital to attend court hearings in Pasay City.
“At least if the hearings are held inside (the hospital), there would be no movement,” he said. –