SAF Commandos confirm 2004 poll fraud coverup

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
VERA Files
July 28, 2008

Part1: SAF Commandos confirm 2004 poll fraud coverup

Part2: Complicity in poll fraud coverup taints SAF record

When Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivers her eighth State of the Nation
Address at the Batasang Pambansa session hall today, she will be
standing close to where, three years ago, police commandos say they
replaced genuine election returns (ERs) with fake ones in ballot boxes
that were being readied for a recount of the 2004 presidential
election.

The ER switching at the Batasan had been talked about and reported on
since 2005, when Arroyo apologized for talking to an election official
while the votes were being counted, in what has since been known as
the "Hello, Garci" scandal.

Recently, some of those who took part in that clandestine operation
have sought legal refuge, executing affidavits and taped testimonies
of their involvement. Others told friends in confidence, while a few
boasted about it in drinking sessions.

They said they switched the ERs of several provinces on three
occasions to reconcile these with the figures in the certificates of
canvass (COCs) and statements of votes (SOVs) that were tampered with
in the 2004 elections.

The stories told by some of the participants and their confidants in
the Batasan operation constitute what could be grounds for another
impeachment case against Arroyo.

They revive allegations that not only did the President cheat in the
2004 elections, but also tried to cover her tracks by switching the
ERs that would have been scrutinized in 2005. At that time, the
presidential electoral protest filed by Arroyo's opponent, Fernando
Poe Jr., was still pending. Poe died of a heart attack in December
2004, but his widow, Susan Roces, pursued the protest.

Among those who took part in the Batasan operation were members of the
Special Action Force (SAF), an elite combat unit of the Philippine
National Police.

Some of them said they got their orders from Gen. Marcelino Franco,
then commanding officer of the SAF. Both Franco and the then chief of
the SAF Intelligence and Investigation Division, Supt. Rafael
Santiago, were present at a briefing on the operation, SAF sources
said.

The SAF sources refused to be named for fear of their safety and those
of their families.


"Basta ang initial info po sa amin ay legal operation po ito pero
hindi pa namin alam ang nature ng operation (The initial info we got
was that it was a legal operation, but we didn't know the nature of
the operation)," an SAF commando said.

Franco, in turn, got his orders from the former PNP chief, Brig Gen.
Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., a trusted adviser of Arroyo, SAF sources said.

Ebdane had denied the allegations in previous reports. VERA Files
tried getting his side of the story but has not received a reply.

Franco, who has since retired from the PNP and is assistant vice
president of Security Bank, also declined to comment on his role in
the ER switching operation.

Santiago, now senior superintendent and head of the Northern Police
District's Intelligence and Investigation Division, ignored requests
for an interview.

SAF sources said the first ER switching operation took place around
midnight of Jan. 23, 2005, a Sunday.

Here's what happened based on interviews, taped testimonies, and
documents obtained by VERA Files.

A van and three other vehicles arrived at the South Wing entrance of
the Batasan complex. Two dozen people alighted from the vehicles, five
of them non-commissioned officers, the rest civilians. Santiago was
the team leader.

At that time, a makeshift storage room had been erected at the South
Wing lobby for ballot boxes containing the returns of the 2004
elections. The boxes had been brought there for the national
canvassing.

The go signal came from SAF officers, among them Inspectors Rafael
Lero and Samson Kimayong. While some stood guard, others unloaded from
the van some 20 to 30 cigarette cartons containing documents.

As a lock picker opened the ballot boxes, SAF commandos said, the
others took out the contents of the ballot boxes and replaced them
with the documents they brought with them.

After three hours, they packed up, loaded what they took from the
ballot boxes into their vehicles and proceeded to the residence of
election lawyer Roque Bello in Brookside Hills, Cainta, Rizal.

The operation was repeated six days later on Jan. 29 and on the first
weekend of February.

Police Chief Insp. Ferdinand Ortega, chief of the SAF contingent
assigned at the Batasan, was present in all three operations.

Today, Lero and Kimayong have been promoted to senior inspectors and
are also assigned at the NPD.

Ortega became commandant of the SAF Training School in Sta. Rosa,
Laguna, right after the Batasan operation. Now a superintendent, he
heads the SAF operations office in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan,
Taguig.

Ortega and Lero likewise ignored VERA Files' requests for an
interview. Contacted by phone, Kimayong denied any knowledge of the
2005 operation.

What the SAF brought to the Batasan South Wing were fake election
returns allegedly fabricated under the supervision of Bello. They
stuffed these into the ballot boxes after they took out the genuine
election returns, which they took to Bello's place.

Contacted for his side, Bello said he had already denied involvement
in the operation way back in March 2006 when pictures of the alleged
manufacturing of ERs in his house appeared in Malaya and Newsbreak.
"It's not true," he reiterated his denial.

Two weeks before the Batasan ER switching operation, Poe's widow,
Susan Roces, had petitioned the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to
replace her husband in the electoral protest he had initiated.

Poe's running mate, Loren Legarda, had filed a similar protest,
questioning the proclamation of her rival Noli de Castro and citing
irregularities in the canvassing of votes in a number of provinces,
many of them in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Both Arroyo and De Castro had been proclaimed president and vice
president after an administration-dominated Congress acting as
National Board of Canvassers (NBC) reported that Arroyo obtained
12,905,808 votes against closest rival Poe who got 11,782,232 votes.
De Castro garnered 15,100,431 votes against Legarda's 14,218,709.

The minority members of the Joint Committee of Congress did not sign
the NBC's final report and instead issued "The True Report," which was
their own version of the results of the 2004 elections that showed Poe
winning over Arroyo by 511,981 votes and Legarda over De Castro by
702,311 votes.

Citing several cases of manufactured election returns, tampered
statement of votes and certificates of votes, the minority challenged
the joint committee and Congress "to show that the numbers on those
questioned certificates of canvass match their corresponding
statements of votes and election returns."

"The truth is in those election returns," the minority said.

ERs are documents prepared by boards of election inspectors at the
precinct level.

For president and vice president, the ERs are sent to the provincial
and city boards of canvassers who then prepare certificates of canvass
(COC) supported by statements of votes (SOV). The votes garnered by
the candidates in the ER, SOV and COC are supposed to match.

This, in fact, seemed to be a concern uppermost in Arroyo's mind
shortly after the 2004 elections. A portion of the "Hello, Garci"
tapes records her voicing her worry to then Comelec Commissioner
Virgilio Garcillano.

Following are excerpts from a late evening conversation between Arroyo
and Garcillano on June 2, 2004:

GMA: Hello. Dun sa Lanao del Sur tsaka sa Basilan, di raw nagma-match
ang SOV sa COC?

Garcillano: Hindi nagma-match? May posibilidad na hindi mag-match kung
hindi nila sinunod 'yung individual SOV ng mga munisipyo....

GMA: So, nagma-match?

Garcillano: Oho. Sa Basilan, alam nyo naman ang mga military dun eh,
hindi masyadong marunong kasi silang gumawa eh. Katulad ho dun sa Sulu
sina General Habacon.

During the congressional canvassing, minority members called the NBC's
attention to the difference in figures reflected in the COCs, which
was the basis of the proclamation, and in their copies of SOVs and
ERs.

The then presiding officers, Sen. Francis Pangilinan and then Rep.
Raul Gonzalez, now justice secretary, brushed aside the minority's
concern, and merely responded by saying, "Noted."

In July 2006, Artemio Rasalan, a self-confessed election operator,
executed an affidavit and videotaped confession of his role in what he
described as a "grand clandestine operation to head off a looming
crisis."

This crisis was expected to erupt once the PET discovered the tampered
ERs and the unmatching SOVs and COCs.

Rasalan said Bello had asked him sometime in July 2004 to undertake an
operation that would "produce at least 10,000 new election returns
duly accompanied by the appropriate Comelec envelopes: officially
numbered envelope seals and the official Comelec inks for thumb
marking."

Rasalan identified nine provinces the ERs of which had to be replaced.
These are Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao
del Norte, Sultan Kudarat and Saranggani in Mindanao and Isabela in
Luzon.

Rasalan added that Bello then told him that Ebdane had engaged his
(Bello's) services on orders of Arroyo. Two months later, Rasalan said
Roque told him he was coordinating closely with Garcillano.

"He (Roque) said the money for this special operation will be provided
by PGMA [Arroyo's initials]. As a matter of fact, a few days
thereafter, I was told by Attorney Bello that Commissioner Garcillano
met with PGMA at her La Vista home to receive the money," Rasalan
said.

They started making the fake ERs in mid-October 2004, Rasalan stated.
It took them two months to finish the work. He then delivered the
10,000 fabricated ERs to Bello's home in Brookside Hills Subdivision,
Cainta, Rizal for the printing of the correct original serial numbers.

With the 10,000 fake ERs ready, the last step was to put them inside
the ballot boxes guarded by the SAF at the Batasan building so that
when the PET started opening the ballot boxes, the figures there would
match those in the tampered COCs and SOVs.

(To be continued)

**************************************************************


Complicity in poll fraud coverup taints SAF record

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
VERA Files
July 29, 2008

(Conclusion)

It was no accident that it was the Special Action Force of the
Philippine National Police that penetrated the Batasan Pambansa and
stuffed the ballot boxes with fake election returns to make it look
like Gloria Arroyo won the 2004 elections.

Established in 1983 initially to help combat insurgency and later to
"destroy enemy forces that undermine the nation's stability," the
police commandos are trained as a rapid deployment force and to
"noiselessly operate in the shadows."

In its 25-year history, the elite unit has not been impervious to the
country's political upheavals. The SAF joined the February 1986 people
power revolution that followed the defection of its founder, then
Armed Forces vice chief of staff and Philippine
Constabulary-Integrated National Police chief Fidel V. Ramos, and
toppled President Ferdinand Marcos.

But in early 2005, some of the SAF's own members said they undermined
democracy when the unit switched the election returns on orders of
former PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

Ebdane knew fully well and harnessed the unit's commando skills. After
all, he had served as SAF commander from August 1989 to February 1991.

It also helped that the SAF was one of the units securing the House.

Had no one talked, the operation that took place on Jan. 23 and 29 and
the first weekend of February 2005 would have been SAF's secret.

His colleagues describe Chief Supt. Marcelino Franco, who approved the
operation as SAF commander at the time, as a "very serious, principled
and highly professional" officer. But they also said that as a leader,
he can be "very pragmatic."

Franco would later be implicated in the alleged plan of the Marines
and Army Scout Rangers in February 2006 to withdraw support from
Arroyo.

In his affidavit, former Armed Forces chief Hermogenes Esperon, then
the commanding general of the Philippine Army, said that his two
classmates in the Philippine Military Academy (Class '74)—Franco and
Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, then commandant of the Philippine
Marines—had asked him to join them in their plan to withdraw support
from Arroyo.

Esperon said this happened in a late-night meeting on Feb. 23 at the
residence of then AFP chief Generoso Senga. He said Franco confirmed
that "most of the elements of SAF-PNP will sympathize with those who
will march and withdraw support from PGMA."

Military officers accused of planning the February 2006 protest
activity said Franco knew first-hand that Arroyo cheated in the
elections. Unlike those who are detained and being tried in court
martial for mutiny, no charges were ever filed against Franco.

SAF sources said prior to the Batasan ER switching operation, Franco
met with Ebdane and Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. He
then entrusted the task to Supt. Rafael Santiago, the commanding
officer of SAF's Intelligence and Investigation Division.

Santiago, in turn, brought in young police officers, including
Inspectors Rafael Lero and Samson Kimayong.

Santiago is said to be the quintessential intelligence agent. "Now you
see him, now you don't," a police officer said.

Chief Inspector Ferdinand Ortega, who headed the SAF unit in the
Batasan during the ER switching operation, appears to be well-liked in
police circles. A colleague finds him "nakakatawang mayabang (amusing
and a braggart)." He is affectionately called "Bungo" or skull, after
the famous Baguio City police officer, Bobby Ortega, who was portrayed
in two movies by the late actor Rudy Fernandez.

About 6,000 genuine election returns were replaced with manufactured
returns in the January to February 2005 operations, a SAF source said.

A fourth operation was planned, but Chief Inspector Jimmy Laguyo, who
by then had replaced Ortega at the SAF's unit at the Batasan, refused
to cooperate, the source said. Franco had Laguyo transferred to Abra.

The fourth operation never materialized. The unit was kept
preoccupied by a failed jailbreak at the SAF headquarters on March 14,
2005 in which suspected Abu Sayyaf members were killed. The Commission
on Human Rights had ordered an investigation of the SAF shortly after
the incident.

The efforts of the SAF commandos who participated in the Batasan
operation did not go unrewarded. The enlisted personnel were each
given P10,000 one month after the operation.

"May natanggap kaming sobre na ibinigay sa amin na patago na sabi
nila, 'Ito panggastos niyo. Ito 'yung reward natin sa operation natin
sa Batasan (We were each secretly handed an envelope and told, 'This
is for your expenses; this is our reward for the Batasan operation),'"
one of them said.

He added, "Nung binuksan ko po 'yung envelope, naglalaman po ng
P10,000. Hindi ko alam kung matuwa ako doon o matakot na gastusi 'yun
kasi 'yun nga sa operation na'yun (When I opened the envelope, it
contained P10,000. I didn't know if I should be happy or be afraid to
spend it because it was for that operation)."

Another enlisted policeman said they were summoned to the SAF office
for the "good news." He said the higher-up who handed them the
envelopes advised them, "Huwag na lang kayo maingay. Sa atin-atin lang
ito (Don't talk about this. Let's keep this among ourselves)."

The switching of the election returns at the Batasan was caught on
video through a mobile phone camera. ABS-CBN had shown the video, but
it went largely unnoticed.

But a SAF member who took part in the operation also has in his
possession evidence—he calls it "souvenir"— of the operation: copies
of the genuine election returns.

He said he removed five envelopes containing the returns from the van
he was riding after the team left the Batasan compound in February
2005 and brought them home with him. Some of his colleagues did
likewise.

The SAF member said he got curious and decided to inspect the contents
of the boxes that had not been sealed with masking tape. "Yun 'yung
election returns. Dahil po ako isang botante, alam ko po ang style ng
election return (They were election returns. I'm a voter, so I know
the style of an election return)," he said.

VERA Files was shown the envelopes containing the returns.

After the recordings of the wiretapped conversations between Arroyo
and Garcillano on the cheating in the 2004 elections became public,
the police commandos involved in the Batasan operation realized the
value of the video and election returns in their hands.

Some of them said they all wanted to make public the evidence they had
but feared this would endanger their lives and those of their
families. They then thought of relocating abroad but they needed money
to do that.

Sen. Loren Legarda, who was then protesting Noli de Castro's
proclamation as vice president, said in an interview she met with Joel
Pinawin, a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve Corps who acted as
liaison for the SAF personnel. She was shown a video of ballot boxes
being moved at the Batasan but said the video was rather dark.

"But they were selling it to me," she said.

Legarda does not remember the amount that was asked, but a source
close to the SAF personnel said the group had hoped to raise P200
million, or P10 million each for the 20 people involved in the
operation.

Said Legarda: "Where will I get the money? Kakatalo ko lang. Dinaya
ako, malungkot, walang trabaho. Wala akong pera (I just lost. I was
cheated, sad, jobless and penniless). I told them to do it for the
country."

The tampering and swapping of the election returns became evident when
the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal
hearing Legarda's election protest, opened the ballot boxes for
Nalindong and Taraka towns in Lanao del Sur.

The copies of the returns that were given to the Commission on
Elections, National Citizens Movement for Free Elections and the
dominant and minority parties showed opposition standard-bearer
Fernando Poe Jr. and Legarda leading Arroyo and De Castro. But the
returns in the ballot boxes retrieved from the Batasan showed the
opposite.

Despite the discrepancies, the Supreme Court dismissed last January
Legarda's petition, citing insufficient evidence of fraud.

Poe's suit against Arroyo before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal
(PET) was dismissed on March 29, 2005. The tribunal said his widow,
actress Susan Roces, could not replace him as petitioner because "she
would not immediately and directly benefit from the outcome should it
be determined that the declared president did not truly get the
highest number of votes."

The returns from the 2004 elections, including the fabricated ones,
are no longer at the House of Representatives. Last February, shortly
after he became speaker of the House, Rep. Prospero Nograles ordered
the ballot boxes containing the returns moved from the South Wing to
the Commission on Elections. The makeshift room where they were once
stored has been dismantled.

Last March, former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. called for an
investigation of the 2005 switching of election returns at the
Batasan.

(VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look
into current issues. Vera is Latin for "true." )