InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
(UPDATE 4 - 5 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines -- Three of eight short video clips given to Senator Panfilo Lacson show several people, including uniformed men, carrying ballot boxes, presumably from the south wing of the Batasan Pambansa during the canvassing of votes for the 2004 presidential elections.
The videos, which appear to have been taken at night using a mobile phone camera, were reproduced for and given to Lacson by a certain Joel Pinawin, a police officer who claims to have witnessed the switching of election returns during the 2004 polls. The other videos show ballot boxes and election returns, which by law should be inside sealed envelopes inside the ballot boxes; only the canvassers may open the ballot boxes and envelopes.
The videos, which Lacson showed reporters, seem to support the revelations of Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago Jr. of the Philippine National Police Special Action Forces (PNP-SAF) that he and his men sneaked into the Batasang Pambansa to steal original election returns and replace these with fake ones to ensure the win of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The PNP-SAF was responsible for the security of the ballot boxes in Batasan Pambansa at that time, and Lacson asked if it was part of the alleged ballot box switching.
For his part, retired Marine colonel Ariel Querubin called on retired Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco, formerly of the elite SAF, to surface and corroborate Santiago’s statements.
Santiago said the order was given by Franco, who in turn got his orders from then PNP chief and now Zambales Governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.
Querubin, who led the Marines stand-off in February 2006 over alleged election fraud, said the present political environment is conducive to clarifying what transpired then.
"We only want to know the truth, get to the bottom of all these and find out what really happened. This is what ruined our careers, and caused our families to suffer so I think we have the right to know what really happened," Querubin said in an interview on Thursday.
Lacson said Pinawin, who did not ask anything in return for the video, did not take the footage. He is waiting for the person who shot the video to surface.
Marine standoff
Franco, a member of the Philippine Military Class of 1974, was one of those implicated in the 2006 Marine standoff against electoral fraud.
Querubin, Major General Renato Miranda, and Brigadier General Danilo Lim were among those charged in the incident but were eventually granted pardon by President Benigno Aquino III.
Among those implicated, Franco was allowed to retire without any charges filed against him.
Querubin said Santiago's revelations were proof that Franco's "ace" was his possible knowledge of massive cheating in the 2004 elections.
"If you remember, Gen. Franco was with us when we met with chief of staff Gen. (Generoso) Senga. All of us were charged, even him. We were all jailed, but he was the only one who retired properly. This shows that he has an ace, that’s why he wasn’t jailed," Querubin said.
The former Marine colonel, who said he does not know Santiago personally and he last spoke with Franco in 2006, said the questions on the Arroyo presidency’s legitimacy are slowly being answered.
"Slowly, one by one, everything is coming out. Even if we don’t go to the site of the cheating, we have a strong evidence of it here," he said.
And Lacson agreed. “Little by little the secrets are starting to come out of the woodwork,” he said, adding some people are sending him feelers about revealing other anomalies of the previous administration.
Lacson has been a stark critic of the Arroyo administration and once exposed then First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo as having secret bank accounts in the name of “Jose Pidal.”
While Lacson is still unsure on the motive of the person who took the videos, he is certain that it will spark a more aggressive search for the truth.
“We all knew there was cheating in 2004,” said Lacson, who had a failed bid at the presidency in 2004. “We all knew who actually won.”
Lacson said he would turn over the videos to the Commission on Elections so that the poll body can conduct its own investigation into the matter.
