PHILIPPINE National Police Chief Avelino Razon ordered yesterday Chief Superintendent Leocadio Santiago, director of the Special Action Force, to look into VERA Files two-part report that the elite police unit undertook the switching of 2004 election returns in the Batasan Pambansa.
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, who is also president of the United Opposition, however, is wary about the investigation to be conducted by the PNP of its own unit.
“We can always call for an investigation, but if it the investigation will be conducted by the PNP or the Department of Justice, nothing will happen,” he said.
Akbayan Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales, on the other hand, said her party-list group will study the VERA Files report “very well and find out how we can project this in light of truth and accountability.”
Binay, campaign manager for UNO presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., said the confessions of several SAF members merely put the pieces of the puzzle together.
“We already know that there was widespread cheating and fraud during the 2004 elections. We know the names of the operators, and how they conducted their operations. The revelations of these SAF men tell us how the special post-election operations were conducted,” he said.
The fact that the SAF was enlisted for the “dirty job” shows how the administration has transformed police and military men into special election operators. “It is an insult to the professionalism of the soldiers and the police,” he added.
Binay also said the report “confirms that the plan to steal the 2004 presidential election was done with much preparation and plenty of resources.”
“Pinaghandaan talaga ang pandaraya. Only people desperate to cling to power and intent on winning at all cost will fund such a high-stake operation,” he said.