Between Facts and Fabrications
Between Facts and Fabrications
(A summary review of Fraud: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the May 2004)
Fraud: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the May 2004 elections is a daunting read. With over 400 pages, the book is hefty and heavy; but it’s not the weight or the number of the pages that makes it difficult to read: it’s the dead-serious content. With the 2007 national elections almost around the corner, to read Fraud is a must-do.
Electoral integrity is arguably one of the most important political issues to face the Filipino people since the EDSA 1 uprising and the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship. Not since the 1986 elections when Corazon Aquino ran against Marcos has the issue of electoral fraud captured the front pages for a duration longer than the period of the elections and its immediate aftermath. From 2004 up to now, all of the issues of corruption, graft, legal deception etc that came out – like so much garbage in a massive landfill—have not been resolved or settled. These issues and the consequent failure of the incumbent administration to clear itself and convince the public of its innocence, coupled with the continuing series of political killings and human rights violations raised the question of whether, in fact, the Philippines can still feign to be a democracy.
The grounds for righteously discrediting the integrity of the May 2004 elections, as laid down all throughout Fraud are simple, straightforward, and not easily disputable: the redirection of public funds towards Macapagal-Arroyo’s campaign kitty; the reports from all over the nation regarding the outright manipulation of records of counted and tallied votes; and last but not the least, Macapagal-Arroyo’s own admission that she did talk to Garcillano on the eve of the polls. In short, the book describes abd goes deep into the workings of the system the Macapagal-Arroyo camp established to specifically, deliberately designed to facilitate fraud.
The book does not hold back any punches. It leaves no doubt in the readers’ mind that it accuses Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies. Names are named, and so are places, dates and circumstances accounted for. From the lowest barangay official to the ranking generals and all the way up to Malacanang, the book does not spare anyone who has had even the slightest involvement in the infamous scheme to give Macapagal-Arroyo another four years in power.
Electoral fraud was not unexpected. It fact, at the time, to even float the idea that the elections could be anything but chaotic, and fraught with violence and fraudulence was to risk ridicule.
What was not expected, however, was the naivete of the masterminds and main perpetrators of electoral fraud that they would not get caught. It’s either they underestimated the intelligence and watchfulness of the cause-oriented groups and individuals and other sectors seeking not only clean elections or electoral reforms but actual social change; or they actually believed that their plan was full proof and their lies and poll manipulations would go completely undetected.
What is most infuriating about the May 2004 elections, as the book seems to point out, is that the main perpetrators did not even cover their tracks cleanly. Proof of electoral fraud and related dirty dealings were coming out of the woodwork, and every day presented fresh reports affirming the desperation of the incumbent but questionable president to remain in power.
The book gives a comprehensive and detailed look into the circumstances that surrounded the May 2004 elections. The term ‘blow-by-blow account’ comes to mind, as the book which also includes various essays and critical analyses of the developments that led up to the elections and the aftermath, contains the complete findings and recommendations of the Citizens’ Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA); and the True Report, or the report made by the Minority bloc of the 13th congress of the House of Representatives on the presidential polls.
A dark panoply of forms of fraud
The fraud that took place in the May 2004 polls came in a dark panoply of forms. As dissected in the book, fraud, Macapagal-Arroyo style, ranged from procedural violations of electoral law (violations which the book asserts were intended to distort the poll results), to the outright use of violence, harassment tactics and acts of political repression not only against voters, but even against the media, independent observers, incidental and accidental whistle-blowers, members of the political opposition and progressive party-lists and people’s groups. To ensure Macapagal-Arroyo’s victory, her henchmen did not stop at ballot rigging. Even as they evidently saw ballot rigging – vote shaving and padding — as integral parts of electoral competition, they must have resolved that it would not be enough.
In the introduction, Fraud in the 2004 elections, Rodolfo Desuasido traces the steps the Macapagal-Arroyo camp took to secure Arroyo’s victory in May 2004. He refreshes the readers’ memory and reminds them of the scandals that made the headlines, and eventually were exposed to be among the first elements of the Arroyo camp’s gameplan: redirecting the 2003 national budget, siphoning public funds and using them for Macapagal-Arroyo’s promotion and publicity campaign; assigning henchmen to key positions in the National Printing Office or NPO (which prints the ballots and other official election paraphernalia), and the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Desuasido also gives a general but all the same detailed description of how the electoral fraud was perpetrated, first with the expertise of ‘master operator’ former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, and then with the railroading of the process of canvassing in Congress. He reminds the reader of the infamous day and hour, June 23 at 3 am, when Macapagal-Arroyo was proclaimed winner of the May 2004 polls, with 1.1 million votes more than her closest rival, Fernando Poe Jr. The Arroyo camp tried to cover all bases – it even instigated a brutal smear campaign with below-the-belt attacks against FPJ . This was aimed not only at undermining public confidence in the latter, but more decisively to have FPJ disqualified and his candidacy nullified.
The book’s introduction, short but comprehensive, prepares the reader for the mind-blowing and staggering amount of information and testimonies from many, many sources pointing out the crimes of the head of the incumbent administration long before and in preparation for the May 2004 polls.
Means and ways
There has the been constant observation of electoral fraud analysts all over the world that political competition dictates the rhythm and nature of electoral fraud. Efforts to steal elections become more obvious and easier to detect and trend depending on the difference in resources and ruthlessness of the political competitors. The desperation to win even through cheating —not only with the use of military might and the outlay of millions of funds —determines the strategies candidates adopt.
Judging from the means and ways implemented by the fraud masterminds and as documented by the CCTA, the Minority members during the House investigations and the independent efforts of the media, it’s evident that there was the attempt to elevate the cheating means to a higher level than just plain vote-buying, ballot switching or ballot theft.
Fraud includes the verbatim transcription of the testimonies of the four experts who testified how the fraud was perpetrated in May 2004, Segundo Tabayoyong, Hermenegildo Estrella Jr., Francisco Alcuaz and Roberto Verzola. Painstakingly, the experts explained the various means by which fraud was done – they saw highly irregular thumbprints in countless election returns, clean
taras in many other ERs and still many other irregularities.
Add these sworn testimonies to the comprehensive bulk of evidence that the elections were fixed and what you’ll have is a highly compelling and urgent reason to demand a poseur-president’s ouster: (a) anecdotal evidence from voters – e.g. lack of indelible ink and other election paraphernalia, incomplete list of candidates and party-lists, lack of security and authenticity of election materials (b) massive disenfranchisement of voters ranging 800,000 to three million, (c) partisan activities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), (d) impossible and improbable vote totals – e.g. GMA winning landslide victories in barangays, provinces or regions arguably acknowledged as bailiwicks of other presidential candidates; more votes reported than registered voters, and negative vote totals, (e) exit poll discrepancies – accurate polls in precincts with validated ballots, inaccurate polls in other precincts and all discrepancies favoring GMA or her party and (e) statistical and qualitative analyses of these anomalies.
Robert Verzola’s article on the results of the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) and the author’s conclusions based on the NAMFREL tally all the more demolishes the credibility of Arroyo’s claim to victory. Verzola , however, also strongly hints at the shortcomings deliberate or not on Namfrel’s part. He offers criticism against Namfrel’s refusal to to release their official breakdown despite the strong urging of the opposition, the media and election watchers.
“If NAMFREL releases this breakdown, we might be able to narrow down the probable range (between GMA’s and FPJ’s votes) and get closer to the truth.”
The Minority Report
The section in Fraud devoted to the report made by the Minority members of the Joint Committee of Congress is titled The True Report. In it, the members of the Minority Bloc led by Minority leader Francis Escudero and Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano gave an accounting of process of canvassing of votes cast for presidential and presidential candidates in May 2004 polls.
Needless to say, it’s a long tale of woe and denunciation. The very title of one of the subreports already explains the gist of the entire report: The Illegal and Unconstitutional Canvass of Certificates of Canvass Which Were Not Authentic and Duly Executed and Refusal by the Majority Members to Open and Tabulate the Election Returns.
The Minority concludes that the House canvass of votes, as led and facilitated by the Majority, was conducted in six ways, in an 1) unfair and impartial manner; 2) Illegal manner; 3) robotic and mechanical manner; 4) unintelligent manner; 5) inaccurate manner; 6) arbitrary manner.
How did the Monority arrive at such conclusions? By tirelessly going through the election returns, statement of votes and certificates of canvasses that came not only from all over the country, but also from abroad where was absentee voting for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) such Myanmar, Qatar, Kuwait, Hong Kong and Ireland. Their conclusion? Massive vote rigging and countless similar anomalies.
The report of the Minority on the national canvass blisters accusations: the tone is an amalgam of frustration, righteous indignation, and lawyerly outrage at how the law has been violated and twisted. It’s evident that the writer of this report had to stay his or her hand to prevent himself/herself from using ‘unparliamentary language’; the occasional insult and threat – “The Majority Members are extremely afraid and apprehensive the truth will come; or “Such unreasonable and illegal acts of the Majority Members will face imminent rejection in the parliament of the streets” – however, slips in, and one actually begins to sympathize with the members of the Minority who witnessed the canvassing and how the supposedly democratic exercise of elections was completely rubbished.
A watchful mainstream media
One could only have been able either in a coma or dead to have not been aware of the turbulent political events that racked the
Philippines in the last two years. Even before the May 2004 elections took place, the media had been active not only in reporting the usual, expected news that came with elections, but in exploring stories with controversial angles, giving consideration to the country’s history in elections, and the track records of the candidates, particularly those who ran for the presidency.
It is most fortunate that for all the attacks against freedom of the press in the
Philippines , the more progressive section of the media did not falter at their duty to expose the truth surrounding the 2004 polls and indirectly assist those who also shared the same mission. Fraud’s credibility is further strengthened by the consistent attribution of reports that came out in the broadsheets or broadcasted over radio and television all throughout the elections, the final canvassing, the congressional investigations on the Hello, Garci scandal and the deliberations of the CCTA.
The media followed the developments in the electoral fraud investigations and the inevitable surfacing of various witnesses who risked life and reputation to expose what they knew. Through the chaos of swiftly-changing reports and contradicting allegations and accusations, a pattern emerged: Macapagal-Arroyo and her camp initiated a plot to win the elections with massive cheating (dubbed Oplan Mercury, as stated in the book) and it was quickly unraveling at the seams.
Much thought went into analyzing the allegations of illegal voting even in the mainstream press, meaning it was not only the alternative media that stayed glued to the developments and weeded through the host of various lies and denials issued by Malacanang. The effectiveness of the mainstream press in exposing corruption has been proven only recently when the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, angry and piqued, filed libel suites against more than 40 journalists for their reports on the FG’s being the ‘chief cheating operator’ in the 2004 polls, involvement in jueteng and smuggling scams, and other infamous deeds.
The attacks against progressive party-lists and the future of the party-list system
Atty. Cleto Villacorta has two articles in the book, “The Commission of Fraud: Patronage Politics in the Comelec” and “Has the Party List Law Broadened Popular Participation in Governance.” The former gives an analytical look at the Comelec and why precisely it can never have full credibility as an arbiter of clean and honest elections. The latter, in the meantime, is an honest reading of the state of the party-list system.
Villacorta tips his hat to the victory of the progressive party-lists Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party, and even to the three other party-lists which were casualties of electoral fraud Migrante Party List, Suara Bangsa Moro and Anak ng Bayan.
He lays down the legal framework which these progressive party-lists entered, and acknowledges that they followed the rules to the letter. If laws were followed, the government should even encourage the establishment and participation in the electoral process of grassroots groups, but as Villacorta admonishes: “The Comelec worked lackadaisically on the technical aspects of the party-list elections…The government has initiated and managed a strong-arm campaign against Bayan Muna et al – a State action that is seriously illegal in character.”
Villacorta does not foresee a good future for progressive partylists, and understandably so, seeing how over 700 civilians, political activists, human rights advocates allied or directly affiliated with Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and other progressive partylists have been systematically killed since Macapagal-Arroyo came to power. Five of the six lawmakers of these partylists , Satur Ocampo, Rafael Mariano, Liza Maza, Joel Virador and Teddy Casino were forced to take refuge in the House of Representatives for three months following foiled attempts to arrest them on rebellion charges. The sixth, labor leader and Anakpawis Rep. Crsipin Beltran remains incarcerated eight months since February 2006 on charges of inciting to sedition to sedition and rebellion.
“Yes, the six party-lists groups won hands down in the party-list elections. But at what price, that is, whose lives have to be lost for such victory? There is neither rhyme nor reason for the State to invite varied ideologies and then allow its armed authorities and paramilitary units on a rampage against the progressive party-list groups.”
Villacorta is of an opinion that a genuine party-list system in this country is doomed to fail; and if the rest of what’s stated and expounded upon in the rest of the book is anything to by, all elections in the Philippines are doomed to be corrupt and fraudulent given the entrenched orientation of those who run the elections, those who run in the elections, and those who inevitably win the elections using not only guns, goons and gold, but by blatantly twisting and violating electoral and other laws.
A tribute to the progressive people’s movement
Finally, Fraud pays tribute to the tireless efforts of the progressive sectors of Philippine society . The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), by coming out with such a book, added to the most growing list of publications and materials that attest to the long-standing campaign of the progressive mass movement not only to expose and oppose corruption in government and all other attacks against the welfare and wellbeing of the Filipino people, but to present alternatives to the status quo.
The book makes note of the leadership of militant people’s organizations in highlighting the issues and concerns of the basic sectors they represent. People’s organizations such as the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Migrante International, Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap and their leaders coordinated closely with the CCTA in gathering evidence to bolster the various charges of corruption, abuse of office, and human rights violations against Macapagal-Arroyo. The human rights organization KARAPATAN, in the meantime, provided the conclusive documents and testimonies revealing the viciousness of the Arroyo administration’s military offensives against progressives and sympathizers.
The congressional investigations on the Hello, Garci scandal, the deliberations of the CCTA and the continuing debates in the House of Representatives on the legitimacy of the Arroyo presidency all happen against the backdrop of relentless street protests and other forms of civil dissent. These demonstrations are either led by or largely supported by the mass membership of the groups under the banner of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN). Even as the battle raged in the legal fronts, the parliament of the streets was always vigilant, actively commenting on the developments, and denouncing the machinations of the administration to deny everything and criminalize the CCTA and those who participated in it.
What Fraud teaches readers is a valuable lesson: relying solely on legal battles, the legally prescribed venues for debate and struggle to resolve political conflicts between the State and the people is foolhardy. Anti-people and increasingly despotic regimes such as those led by Macapagal-Arroyo will not hesitate to break its own laws to achieve its ends. Neither does a government like Arroyo’s have qualms about initiating campaigns of political intimidation, harassment, and outright killing to protect itself and to silence its critics: the reason that these doings are ‘against the law’ and should not be allowed is rendered as worthless as any of Arroyo’s promises to alleviate poverty.
Given all this, the exploration of extra-legal means, and reliance on strong mass movement are crucial if the campaign to expose an anti-people government is to survive and prosper. To fight fraud, an active legal battle is highly necessary, but it must work is close tandem with an equally vigilant and militant people’s movement. #
