This is an article repost.
Military officers campaigned for an anti-communist party-list group, counted votes inside camps, and cheated for candidates, probers told
MANILA, Philippines—Military officers allowed themselves to be used in the 2004 presidential elections by cheating for certain candidates and political parties, transcripts of a declassified military probe showed.
No less than the commander of the military task force deputized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in 2004 had told a military investigating panel that he believed that what was recorded in the “Hello, Garci” election wiretapping scandal indeed happened.
“I think that is true, and you better accept it at this point,” then Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia had told the Mayuga panel. Garcia was commander of Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly, Peaceful Elections) in 2004, but by the time he faced the investigating panel in July 2005 he had already retired from the military and was serving as President Arroyo’s adviser on the peace process.
“We all know it,” he told military probers. “Whether you deny it to yourself or not, we have to accept it that our officers have been involved in this. I think if you look deep down inside yourself and ask yourself [an] honest opinion, whether you believe our officers [are] capable of cheating… or does it happen….the answer is yes. There are people among us who allowed themselves to be used. I think everybody knows that. It was a fact…these are the things we hear. Let us not joke ourselves or try to delude ourselves in the idea na walang nangyayari because in fact things are happening.”
Garcia lamented that officers had become obsessed with their careers that they tended to “do everything…to make sure that you reach what you have set for yourself by hook or by crook.” A 1970 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, which was once a power class under the Arroyo government, Garcia acknowledged the state of affairs in the Armed Forces—that officers who committed wrongdoing “still rose” in the ranks.
President Aquino on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011 declassified the Mayuga report (see links below) upon the request of lawmakers. The report was named after then Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga, who headed the panel of investigators that was formed in the aftermath of the “Hello, Garci” scandal that exposed wiretapped conversations between former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and then candidate and president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, among others.
Nothing came out of the investigation, with the panel clearing all the generals whose names were dragged in the “Hello, Garci” scandal such as Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Gabriel Habacon, Francisco Gudani and Roy Kyamko.
In fact, two officers who were categorically identified in the probe as having campaigned for a party-list group were eventually promoted: Esperon, who became chief of staff in July 2006, and his former deputy Col. Rey Ardo, recently named commanding general of the Army’s 6th infantry division in Cotabato.
But the transcripts of the interviews conducted by the panel could help policymakers in addressing the problematic role of the military in elections.
There are questions worth pursuing. Why provide the military separate funding to guard the vote? Why create a separate military task force that in reality bows to commanders already within the chain of command? Why allow troops in critical areas to bring ballot boxes inside military camps? And why allow them to count the votes?
The panel’s interviews with 70 officers and men, a civilian budget officer and one elections director also revealed the following:
Military officers led by Esperon, who was deputy chief of staff for operations (J3) in 2004, asked soldiers to support the government-backed ANAD anti-communist party-list group. This was revealed to the Mayuga panel by then Lt. Col. Elmer Logronio, who was operations officer of a Marine battalion based in the Lanao provinces. According to him, “OJ3 (military parlance for J3 commander or his office) presided [over] a conference re ANAD at GHQ (general headquarters) before 08 April 2004.” He also said that Ardo, who was Esperon’s deputy at J3 and now commander of the Army’s 6th infantry division in Cotabato, visited the Lanao provinces between May 8 and 9, 2004 “but was only checking the stand of ANAD.” ANAD, or Alliance for National Democracy, did not make it in the 2004 race but won three years later, in the 2007 elections, on account of a massive turnout of absentee voters from the military. Ardo himself faced the Mayuga panel but the transcript indicates he was not confronted about ANAD, which was widely believed to have been organized by the military to counter leftist party-list groups.
The military indeed used P101 million of its election fund from the Comelec on so-called intelligence projects, confirming a recent Newsbreak report. Then Lt. Col. Gilbert Gapay, budget officer of J3 in 2004, told the Mayuga panel that the AFP received a total of P197 million from the Comelec during the elections—not just P101 million as we previously reported—but that P101 million of this was “intended for intelligence project which was released to J2 (office of the deputy chief of staff for intelligence) and the ISAFP (Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines).” Gapay’s disclosure was corroborated by the budget officer of J2 (office of the deputy chief of staff for intelligence), Maj. Jane Cavanas, who told the panel that J2 spent P85 million in election fund on “many accomplishments neutralizing various threats.” She denied though that wiretapping was one of those projects, referring to allegations that ISAFP wiretapped the conversations between then President Arroyo and elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, leading to the “Hello, Garci” controversy. Gapay is in the plunder suits filed by whistle-blower and former military budget officer George Rabusa against at least 20 officers.
At least 200 officers and men in Sulu and Lanao del Sur served as Board of Election Inspectors, or BEIs, a purely civilian function. This was admitted by then Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko, commander of the Southern Command, who claimed that majority of the soldiers deployed as BEIs came from the Marines. No wonder most of them later mounted a botched mutiny to protest election cheating. At least three officers based in these areas told investigators that the military should never be allowed to act as BEIs since this politicizes them. When asked if the AFP was used as a tool to keep politicians in power in that election, then Lt. Col. Victoriano Pimentel, who was battalion commander in Sulu, told the panel: “Yes, it is not really the will of the people.”
An “alleged lawyer” of former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo flew twice to Tawi-Tawi after the May 10, 2004 elections, according to then Col. Rene Pilapil, commander of Task Force Sanga Sanga in the province. Quoting Pilapil, the panel’s transcript said: “Can remember two helicopters requested for landing after the election, by an alleged lawyer of the now First Gentleman.” Mr. Arroyo has been accused of selling previously owned choppers to the Philippine National Police after he had used them to campaign for his wife in 2004. Helicopter pilots who flew the choppers recently told Senate investigators that they did travel to Tawi Tawi.
It was Esperon who controlled the disbursement of the P197-million election fund of the AFP. But it’s evident in the panel’s investigation that the funds were not equally distributed to units. Some field commanders said they did not receive extra money for their election operations, while others said they received varying amounts, ranging from P50,000 to P90,000.
Despite the creation of Task Force HOPE, the real power of troop deployment and use of funds in the 2004 elections rested with the J-staff and area commanders. Garcia cited the fact that it was J3 that controlled the election budget provided by the Comelec.
Then Capt. Valentino Lopez, who served as aide of Garcillano, offered an election director in Region 9 a “huge amount” in exchange for making an Arroyo ally in Zamboanga, Le Peng Wee, win as mayor and to “remedy the big lead” of then presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. over Mrs. Arroyo. This was disclosed by Helen Flores, then Comelec director for Region 9 and one of only two civilians interviewed by the Mayuga panel. The report said, referring to Flores: “She informed Col. Joel Ibanez who was then the U3 (operations chief) of Southcom (AFP Southern Command based in Zamboanga City) and her staff because she was already alarmed that…something might happen to her…That she did not think of reporting the matter to the AFP because she knew that the boss of CPT Lopez and Commissioner Garcillano is the personnel officer in the main office of the Comelec, very influential and could facilitate the demolition of transfer of anyone…but anyway she did not accept the bribe.”
In the end, Garcia summed up the problem: “The thing we need is election reform…elections right now is a function of money…But there is a system in Congress. They will have to protect their own terms. Sometimes you wonder what to do with the system that we have.”
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By: Glenda M. Gloria
Source: Newsbreak, Aug. 18, 2011
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