ALL those suspected to be involved in the commission of poll cheating face the prospect of going to jail even before they are proven guilty.
This is because poll cheating cases, especially those that result in the proclamation and assumption of the wrong people like what happened in the 2004 presidential election, is considered election sabotage under the law and those charged can be arrested and detained without bail.
This was bared by Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, himself a victim of election cheating in 2007.
Pimentel made the statement in a speech he delivered before members of various Rotary clubs in Davao meeting jointly at the Marco Polo Davao recently.
The young Pimentel said the most absurd things happen when elections in the Philippines are manipulated, saying that in Maguindanao, even President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III got zero vote in 2007, along with some other candidates who fortunately were elected senator on the strength of votes they gained in the rest of th country.
Koko “lost” in the 2007 election but filed a protest and eventually won the case against Bukidnon senator Juan Miguel Zubiri who resigned days before the Senate Electoral Tribunal ruled on the protest.
Pimentel credited his electoral victory to a miracle rather than as the triumph of justice.
He said the “miracle” was the revelations of ARMM (Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao) governor Zaldy Ampatuan about election manipulations thst happened in Maguindanao.
It was a miracle said Pimentel because Ampatuan, while in detention for his alleged participation in the November 23, 2009 massacre of 58 civilians, including 34 journalists, bared alleged election cheating in the 2007 elections.
Ampatuan’s statement, Pimentel said, was followed by the surfacing of other election “operators”, including Commission of Elections provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol who confirmed the cheating.
“It is not an ideal situation when candidates who are cheated will only win their protest because of a miracle, instead of by operation of the wheel of justice,” Pimentel said.
He vowed to continue working for election reforms while he is senator and as practicing lawyer.
“Because I was cheated, the voters were deprived of my services for more than four years,” he told the Rotarians, adding that he intends to run for reelection in 2013 so he could make it up to the people.
The joint meeting was led by the mother Rotary Club of Davao led by lawyer Oscar Gonzales and the Council of Presidents chaired by Arthur Uy of the Rotary Club of South Davao. AMA
