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Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Gloria Arroyo’s downfall actually started in July

November 21, 2011

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By Raïssa Robles

The Arroyo camp is complaining that the Commission on Elections and the Department of Justice “railroaded” and “rushed” the electoral sabotage case against her.

The truth is the opposite of that. The “evidence” of Arroyo’s crime first came to light on July 11 this year and quickly unfolded from there.

zaldy-ampatuan-and-gma

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Muslim Autonomous Region Governor Zaldy Ampatuan share a meal in happier times

It all began when Zaldy Ampatuan –  a suspected mass murderer whom Arroyo  handpicked to be  Governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) – suddenly told ABS-CBN TV that his family helped rig the 2007 polls for Arroyo in their home province of Maguindanao.

He claimed that as a result, Arroyo’s candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri won a seat in the Senate.

During the Comelec counting at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), Zubiri emerged No. 1 in Maguindanao province and won over 195,000 votes there. Gloria Arroyo’s senatorial bets won all the votes there while the opposition – that then included Benigno Aquino III – all got zero.

Arroyo’s spokesman Raul Lambino said the accusation was self-serving. Ampatuan merely wanted to save his own skin. By offering to testify against Arroyo, he might evade being charged for the 2009 massacre of 58 people, including 34 journalists, in Maguindanao, southern Philippines.

At that time, Ampatuan had already been in a maximum security cell for two years trying to avoid arraignment for the mass murder.

Ampatuan’s claim would probably have fallen by the wayside if another controversial personality had not surfaced three days later on July 13 and sang the same tune. Lintang Bedol, an election supervisor for the southern province of Sultan Kudarat and long wanted by the Comelec for cheating, suddenly gave an interview to ABS-CBN saying Arroyo cheated in the 2004 and 2007 elections.

Two weeks later, the man whom Zaldy Ampatuan claimed was the main beneficiary of cheating suddenly resigned from the Senate. Juan Miguel Zubiri vacated his Senate seat on August 3 tearfully saying:

Without admitting any fault and with my vehement denial of the alleged electoral fraud hurled against me, I am submitting my resignation as a duly elected Senator of the Republic of the Philippines in the election for which I am falsely accused without mercy and compassion.

Kung may nandaya po sa 2007 elections, wala po tayong kinalaman diyan…[If anyone cheated in the 2007 elections, we did not know anything about it.]

The candidate who had accused Zubiri of stealing the votes assumed Zubiri’s vacated seat and vowed to go after the “mastermind” of the cheating.

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III had actually fought a lonely four-year battle to unseat Zubiri from the Senate and claim it as his. Way back in 2007, he had accused two provincial election officials, Lilian Radam and Yogie Martirizar, of cheating for Zubiri.

This is the same Yogie Martirizar whom I wrote about as having almost the same calcium deficiency disorder as Arroyo in my piece entitled – Gloria Arroyo stopped a woman, with an illness and a case just like hers, from leaving the country for four years

After Zubiri resigned, Yogie Martirizar and Lilian Radam suddenly volunteered to become state witnesses.

They signed affidavits admitting they had rigged the vote for Arroyo’s senatorial candidates and were helped by government forces in the cheating operation.

They also claimed that Arroyo’s own election lawyer Alberto Agra – whom she later appointed acting justice secretary – defended them against the poll fraud charges.

It was this domino of revelations which prompted Comelec to conduct a joint investigation with DOJ. Senator Pimentel immediately filed a complaint before the body, accusing Arroyo and others of electoral sabotage. He named Martirizar, Radam, Zaldy Ampatuan and Bedol as his witnesses.

electoral sabotage - norie Unas

Star witness Norie Unas

During the investigation, 14 election officials and one technician working on computerized voters lists testified. The star witness of them all was Norie Unas, Maguindanao’s provincial administrator and the right hand man of Zaldy Ampatuan’s father, Andal Sr.

Unas claimed he accompanied Andal Sr to a dinner with Mrs Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel inside Malacañang Palace shortly before the 2007 elections. There, Unas said Mrs Arroyo told Andal Sr. to “produce a 12-0 result in Maguindanao (for her 12 senatorial candidates), even if you have to rearrange or change the results.”

To this day, Mrs Arroyo has issued no comment on the charges upon the advice of her lawyer. The Arroyo couple’s lawyers had agreed to submit their counter-affidavits last Monday Nov 14. After that, the case would be deemed submitted for resolution.

Instead of doing that, their lawyers asked the Supreme Court last Friday Nov 11 to void the probe because it was “a kangaroo court.”

Then their lawyers told the panel that Monday Nov 14 to freeze the probe and wait for Supreme Court to act on their petition. The panel refused and Mike Arroyo’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio stormed out and denounced the “railroading” of the investigation.

He said the panel disregarded the affidavit of Andal Sr. totally denying Unas’ claims.

Five days later on November 18, the Comelec used the panel results to file a complaint of electoral sabotage against Mrs Arroyo before Pasay City Regional Trial Court Judge Jesus Mupas, who then issued an arrest warrant that very night.

The rest is history.

Comments

  1. wyl5326 says

    February 6, 2012 at 1:35 PM

    Raisa:
    In Sen. Saguisag’s email to me about your articles, he decribed you and Merites as Women with Balls ! Congrats and more power.

    wilson

    PS. I wonder where I read a copy of Midnight CJ’s speech before MOPC shortly after he assumed as CJ. Was it from your blog or somebody else ?

    • raissa says

      February 6, 2012 at 2:03 PM

      Sen Saguisag e-mailed you?

      Do share.

      Yes, I put up an excerpt of his speech before MOPC before.

  2. Ate Moh Atenila says

    January 29, 2012 at 6:04 AM

    Mabuhay! I feel bless coming across this site, now I don’t have to content myself with just opinion from Philstar, Enq., Nyt, thanks!! more power to you Ms. R.R.

    • raissa says

      January 29, 2012 at 6:58 AM

      Thank you for reading.

      Pls. tell your friends and relatives about my site.

  3. Mel says

    January 26, 2012 at 11:09 AM

    Witness says IBP head got P.5M from Mike Arroyo in 2001

    A former employee of LTA Inc., which is owned by the family of Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, has surfaced with a story of a decade-old incident wherein he said he was given P500,000 by Arroyo’s comptroller, Ma. Victoria “Vicky” Toh, for deposit to Libarios’ bank account.

    The whistle-blower said that in coming forward, he only wanted to help President Benigno Aquino III bring justice and order to the country. “I do not ask for anything in return; nobody promised me anything or instructed me to make this narration,” he said.

    Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer 1:05 am | Thursday, January 26th, 2012

  4. Mel says

    January 25, 2012 at 9:16 AM

    “Finally, they may have found the smoking gun. After continuous investigations into all sorts of wrongdoing allegedly perpetrated by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Senate blue ribbon committee has finally found a case that apparently directly links her to the alleged crime.

    “When grilled by the [Senate blue ribbon] committee, Uriarte said that the documents facilitating the allocation of the ridiculous CIF requests went through Malacañang from 2008 to 2010, and the documents bearing either Arroyo’s signature or her initials were signed by the former president right in front of Uriarte.”

    Source: PDI Editorial (12:36 am | Sunday, January 22nd, 2012)

    Caught ‘red-handed’?

  5. Dominic John says

    January 23, 2012 at 5:38 PM

    Hi,
    kudos to your writings now I am hooked to your site
    I am a Malaysian married to a wonderful Pinoy living in Calbiga all countries have their crooked leaders it,s people like you who have to check and balance ,please keep it up and all the best.
    Best regards
    Dominic

    • raissa says

      January 23, 2012 at 7:04 PM

      Thanks, Dominic for being concerned about my country.

  6. pilipinang 2nay says

    December 28, 2011 at 1:03 AM

    come to think of it, when g arroyo made her “state visit” in the UK some years back and she was only met by low-ranking government employees, i would have to say that it was literally a slap on the face. kahiya talaga. esp since a few months later, queen elizabeth herself feted to a state dinner a south african head of state. n’on pa lang nakakahiya na yon. the truth is, nobody respects her, not foreign governments, and certainly not by her people. her supporters are made up of mostly political stooges who have benefited from her financial largesse over the years. problema lang, it wasn’t her own money she was giving away.

    • raissa says

      December 28, 2011 at 10:22 PM

      Really?

      Interesting.

  7. joselin kobayashi says

    December 19, 2011 at 12:00 AM

    Ms. Raissa maraming salamat sa yong articles…I forgot the time and was glued reading for straight 5 hours. Sana patuloy kang magbibigay ng accurate information lalo na sa mga tulad kong narito sa labas ng bansa.

    Stay safe and more power. God bless you.

    • raissa says

      December 19, 2011 at 8:05 AM

      Thank you for reading, Joselin

    • Conquermore says

      February 10, 2012 at 1:07 AM

      Pareho pala tayong nahuhumaling sa mga blogs ni Raissa sis. Jo. I found her site also and since then inaabangan ko na ang kanyang mga makapigil hiningang revelations.

      Keep it up Raissa. May the Lord bless you more for upholding the truth about what’s happening in our country. God bless us all Filipinos who are dreaming of a recovering Philippines through deliverance from the evil of corruption.

      Pag magtagumpay tayo sa paglilinis ng imahen ng Supreme Court (ganun kahalaga ang impeachment trial na ito ni Corona), manunumbalik ang tiwala natin sa Judiciary then tiyak na mapaparusahan ang iba pang mga tiwali sa pamahalaan kasi alam nating may credibility na tlaga ang Judiciary. Ang kasunod niyan ay ang conviction ng kahit sino sa ating pamahalaan na mga magnanakaw (halimbawa mga Arroyo).

      Pag nangyari ang ganitong mga pagbabago, marami ng magtitiwalang mga investors sa ating bansa, magkakaroon na tayong pag-asang makaahon ang ating bayan sa kahirapan.

      Ang lahat ng ito ay posible pag patuloy tayong magkaisa sa krusada ng paghahayag ng katotohanan katulad ni Raissa. Let’s promote Raissa’s blog sa iba pa nating mga kababayan para magising na ang mga Pilipino na kumilos at makialam sa proseso ng pagbangon at pagbabago.

      Higit sa lahat, lumapit tayo sa Diyos at manalangin na patuloy Niyang kahabagan ang ating bayan. Let’s continue to pray for Raissa’s gift of investigative writing and of course her safety.

« Older Comments

Trackbacks

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    March 4, 2012 at 11:34 AM

    […] I discussed in a piece entitled Gloria Arroyo’s downfall actually started in July  how a long chain of events led to the arrest of Arroyo. This started with the claim of one of […]

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist Then they came fof the Trade Unionists, and I did not out speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me— And there was no one left to speak for me. —Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

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