By YVONNE CHUA
(First published in July 2005)
WHEN the official canvassing of votes ended on June 20, 2004, those who were monitoring the count already thought that the results from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) looked suspicious. Even Mahar Mangahas of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) could not help but notice the huge disparity between the Namfrel tally for ARMM and the results of the Social Weather Stations exit poll there on one hand and the congressional count on the other.
“ARMM to me from the very beginning is the place where people should look,” Mangahas said.
A year ago, though, only a few bothered to do so, and their concerns were not given much attention. Then came the “Garci” tapes, which have put the spotlight back on the Mindanao votes of 2004, and how these were key to the president’s winning margin. In fact, the five ARMM provinces – Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao – as well as the predominantly Muslim Cotabato City and Sultan Kudarat province in Region 12 were at the core of the conversations between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
The Garci tapes do not give an indication of the extent of the election fraud in Mindanao, but they provide clues on the different types of manipulation of the voting and counting in several provinces there. It can even be said that the recorded conversations could enable one to write a field manual on how to rig elections through the infamous dagdag-bawas (vote-padding/shaving), and use of field personnel of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), as well as the military and police.
The ARMM votes were crucial to ensuring the president’s 1.1 million lead over main opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. A quarter of that winning margin – 277,729 – came from ARMM alone. Overall, Arroyo’s lead over Poe in Mindanao was 496,116, of which ARMM was responsible for more than 56 percent. ARMM contributed 17 percent to the president’s total Mindanao vote.
Arroyo won in Caraga (the Agusan and Surigao provinces) and Regions 9 and 10 (Western and Northern Mindanao) and lost in Regions 11 and 12 (Southern Mindanao and Soccsksargen – South Cotabato, Cotabato City, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos). Her lead over Poe in those five regions was 218,887, but still insufficient to guarantee a margin of more than one million—until the ARMM votes came in.
In her apology to the nation on June 27, the president asserted that her conversations with an unnamed Comelec official could not have influenced the outcome of the 2004 polls because “the election results were already in and the votes had been counted.” In fact, when she was talking to Garcillano from May 26 to June 10, 2004, the counting of the votes in seven of 39 Lanao del Sur towns was far from over.
Special elections were held in 200 precincts in Lanao del Sur and five barangays in Lanao del Norte on May 22 and the counting was not yet done when the president was making the calls. On May 29, the president even pointedly asked Garcillano: “So will I still lead by more than one million (votes)?” The reply: “Mataas ho siya [Poe] pero mag-compensate po sa Lanao ‘yan (His count is high, but that will be compensated in Lanao).”
The Cotabato count, meanwhile, was moved to Manila, and was finished only on June 1. The national canvassing began on June 7.
Discrepancies in the tallies
In Congress’s final tally, Arroyo won over Poe in ARMM, 549,944 to 272,715—62 percent to 31 percent. In Namfrel’s June 30, 2004 terminal report, however, the ratio was almost the exact opposite: Poe led Arroyo, 228,567 to 161,067, or 53 percent to 37 percent.
In Sulu, where Namfrel reported 100-percent coverage, the elections watchdog tabulated 74,511 election returns, 32 percent (23,896 votes) of which went to Arroyo and 61 percent (45,740) to Poe. Congress canvassed nearly double the votes—146,652, of which 53 percent (78,429) were Arroyo’s and 41 percent (60,807) were Poe’s.
SWS’s exit poll was a near mirror of Namfrel’s count. Half of its respondents in ARMM said they elected Poe and 44 percent said they picked Arroyo.
Computer expert and engineer Roberto Verzola, who had volunteered with the poll-fraud watchdog Coalition for Hope, had pointed out right after last year’s elections the “huge discrepancies” between the Congress and Namfrel counts in ARMM, Western Mindanao and Northern Mindanao. “FPJ wins (were) turned into GMA wins,” he said.
Extrapolating from the Namfrel and congressional tallies, Verzola estimated that the dag-dag bawas in ARM resulted in 252 of every 1,000 Poe votes, or 25 percent, being change to Arroyo votes. This would be 68,178 of the 272,715 votes Poe had garnered in the region.
Following the national canvassing, the opposition in its own report said cheating took place in all the five provinces of the ARMM, listing 20 towns where, it claimed, the President’s votes were padded by 76,455 and Poe’s shaved by 41,313.
Yet despite allegations of cheating and discrepancies in the count, Namfrel has said it is still confident the 2004 presidential and national elections were credible. “Absolutely,” Namfrel secretary general Guillermo Luz said when asked recently by the television channel ANC if he thought the results of the elections were credible. “The results of the elections reflect the actual votes.”
Padding and shaving votes
That, however, doesn’t necessarily rule out man-made miracles in the Mindanao votes. For instance, Lanao del Sur, the votes of which where supposed to “compensate” the President’s votes to help ensure her one-million lead over Poe, was the center of massive dagdag-bawas in Mindanao. The charge was made last year by no less than Namfrel provincial chair Abdullah Dalidig.
The final congressional tally shows Arroyo winning in Lanao del Sur, garnering 128,301 votes to Poe’s 43,302. The President got another 30,447 and Poe 6,805 in the special elections that were subsequently held in Lanao del Sur towns where failure of elections had been declared. But the Namfrel tally shows Poe leading Arroyo, 42,374 to 32,389, and the opposition’s Loren Legarda beating Noli de Castro, 56,568 to 23,242, in the province. (Namfrel said it canvassed less than 50 percent of the returns from Lanao del Sur.)
Documents from Namfrel’s chapter in Lanao del Sur illustrate the extent of the alleged vote-padding and shaving. The most interesting involved Poona Bayabao, about 37 kilometers from Marawi City. The town merited special mention in Garcillano’s May 30 conversation with a certain Rey, who reported to the commissioner that an en banc order had been issued: He was “to continue with the canvassing but suspend the proclamation.” According to Comelec and ARMM sources, Rey’s voice sounds much like that of election supervisor Rey Sumalipao.
The fourth copy of the certificate of canvass (COC) that Namfrel obtained of the voting in Poona Bayabao shows President Arroyo and Legarda leading their main opponents 4,700 to zero. But the election returns that the poll monitor was furnished (Namfrel gets the sixth copy) reveal a big discrepancy: neither Poe nor de Castro obtained zero votes. In two tables prepared later by the Namfrel chapter summarizing the election returns (ERs) in 13 precincts in Poona Bayabao, Poe got 767 and Arroyo 964, while Legarda obtained 1,252 and de Castro, 350.
Dalidig’s chapter also prepared tables comparing the ERs and COCs in seven other towns: Lambayanague, Taraka, Saguiaran, Marantao, Mulondo, Binidayan, and Balindong. Dalidig counted 10,077 more votes in the COC. [Some tables contain computation errors.] According to the Namfrel chapter, the President’s votes were padded by 21,217 votes while Poe’s were shaved by 9,174.
More mismatches and multiple voting
But other calls made by the president hinted on something afoot in other provinces. Her May 26 call to Garcillano, for example, centered on Tawi-Tawi, where Sen. Rodolfo Biazon was threatening to have the ballot boxes opened if he were cheated. ““Eh baka raw ako ang madale doon (It might affect me),” said the president. Garcillano replied, “Baka nga ho (It might).”
The next day, Arroyo called the commissioner to ask if the election returns from Sulu were complete and corresponded to what could either be the provincial- and municipal-level (COCs) and their accompanying statement of votes (SOVs). Garcillano replied, “Oo ma’am. Lahat ho meron, hindi po naming ika-count kung (Yes, ma’am. We would not count them if)…”
On June 2, the President is heard asking Garcillano about the reported mismatch between the COCs and SOVs in Basilan and Lanao. She was assured, “Yung ginawa nilang magpataas sa inyo, maayos naman ang paggawa eh (The upward adjustment they did for you was all right).”
Four days later, she placed another call to seek assurance that the election forms in Maguindanao were consistent. “Hindi naman ho masyadong problema sa Maguindanao (Maguindanao isn’t much of a problem),” Garcillano said.
Official results would show Arroyo winning convincingly in Maguindanao. On May 28, 2004, however, losing Maguindanao gubernatorial candidate Guimid Matalam filed a petition before the Comelec seeking a declaration of failure of elections in 25 of the province’s 27 towns because of alleged electoral fraud there. According to Matalam, the fraud included having election returns prepared even before voting began at 7 a.m. on May 10, 2004 and ballot boxes never being brought to precincts.
At least 37,000 residents of Maguindanao are also being investigated by the local Comelec office on charges of double registration.
Annexes to Matalam’s latest petition explain how multiple voting occurred: Comelec had approved the clustering of precincts before May 10. But on election day, some of the clustered precincts were unclustered, resulting in extra precincts. The voters’ lists in the original and extra precincts contained a number of similar names. In addition, the extra precincts were issued a separate election return and certificate of canvass at the municipal level. After election day, the unclustered precincts were reclustered and the election returns combined and certified by election officers.
This apparently took place not only in Maguindanao, but also elsewhere in ARMM. The duplicate votes ranged from a little as two percent to as much as 21 percent in various precincts of the region’s five provinces.
Once the dust had settled, even Namfrel’s terminal report that showed Arroyo losing to Poe in ARMM revealed her as clinching at least Maguindanao. The official Congress tally of course showed the president beating Poe in ARMM – but then it had her losing in Tawi-Tawi, the subject of her May 26 call to Garcillano.
Fielding – and hiding – Comelec personnel
To carry out electoral fraud, however, an elaborate network of “friendly forces” on the ground is needed. The controversial recordings bear out the importance of mobilizing such forces to either perpetrate cheating or “protecting” votes – as well as ensuring that they will keep silent about the secret goings-on.
A June 5, 2004 conversation between Garcillano and a certain Boy, for instance, even brought out the possibility of having a “missing” election officer kidnapped to ensure she would not talk. The opposition had floated the information that Rashma Hali, election officer in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan, had voluntarily made an affidavit on June 4 before a Makati prosecutor on poll fraud allegedly perpetrated in the town.
Boy informed Garcillano that Hali had done some work for them, “pero limpio ang trabaho nila (but they did a clean job).” Then Boy added, “”Baka ang sabihin niyan na binaligtad ni Kang Patangan sa itaas sa provincial level (They might say Kang Patangan reversed it at the provincial level).” Borromeo Patangan chaired the provincial board of canvassers in last year’s elections.
PCIJ sources in the ARMM and Comelec are split on who Boy is. Two Comelec personnel in Mindanao say Boy could be Comelec regional director for ARMM Renato Magbutay. Contacted by the PCIJ, Magbutay says, “It’s not me. Why don’t we wait for the proper agency to determine if it’s the original or altered tape? Malay mo pinagdugtong-dugtong lang ‘yan to make it appear na original (It may have been spliced to make it appear that it’s the original).”
Two other ARMM and Comelec sources, though, say Boy sounds like Renault ‘Boy’ Macarambon, a Comelec lawyer detailed at the time to Garcillano’s office and whom the elections commissioner was said to have sent to the ARMM areas to help him monitor the elections. Macarambon is mentioned in another conversation as having been sent by Garcillano to Lanao del Sur to check the canvassing there. He did not respond to PCIJ’s phone calls.
On June 7, 2004, President Arroyo herself called Garcillano twice to ask where Hali was. Garcillano assured her they were looking for the Tipo-Tipo election officer, stressing to the president the importance of locating Hali before she said anything. “That’s what I’m being fearful about,” the commissioner said. “That’s why we’re asking people to look for her so that we can control her.”
Assigned to ensure that had apparently been Boy, to whom Garcillano also passed on the president’s concern, relayed in her June 2 phone call, about a teacher from Languyan town in Tawi-Tawi supposedly in the opposition’s “Witness Protection Program.” The elections commissioner said he had already advised (Michael) Mike Abbas, the provincial election supervisor, about the teacher.
Cipriano Ebron, election officer of Pangutaran, Sulu, also figured prominently in Garcillano’s talks with a certain Ruben, as well as in a conversation with the President. During a May 29 phone call, Arroyo referred to the opposition’s claim that it had affidavits from teachers and the board of canvassers in Pangutaran. Four days later, Garcillano reported to the President, “Patataguin ko muna ang EO ng Pangutaran na para hindi sila makatestigo ho (I will ask the Panguntaran election officer to go into hiding so he wouldn’t be able to testify).”
In a conversation on June 10 with Ruben about opposition lawyer Rufus Rodriguez’s threat to present Pangutaran’s election officer to testify on the alleged cheating, the commissioner said, “’Di nila makukuha si Ebron…Akin ‘yang tao na ‘yan eh, taga-Batangas ‘yan eh… Kaya kahit pakainin mo ng bala ‘ yun, ‘di na magpapakita (They won’t get Ebron. He’s my man; he’s from Batangas. Even if you made him eat bullets, he wouldn’t show up).”
Personnel reassignments and vote realignments
Many other conversations have Garcillano instructing Comelec field officers how to address problems that dealt with either the canvassing or threats by the opposition to present witnesses on electoral fraud. Other calls have him receiving reports from Comelec personnel regarding activities in a region that should not have been his concern as Region 4 Comelec commissioner.
On June 6, for instance, Garcillano was told by Comelec lawyer Wynne Asdala, “Itong Talitay tsaka Columbio (a town in Sultan Kudarat), gusto nilang magsubmit ng bagong COC at tsaka SOV para mahabol yung si Barbers (They want to submit new COCs and SOVs in Talitay and Columbio so Barbers can catch up).”
Asdala, who had been sent from the national office to serve as provincial election supervisor of Maguindanao during the elections, seems to have been the recipient of calls from Governor Pax Mangugudata and his son, Rep. Suharto Tan ‘Teng’ Mangungudatu, regarding efforts to help K-4 senatorial bet Robert Barbers garner more votes.
Asdala confirms talking with Garcillano about the votes in Talitay town, Maguindanao, but denied they ever talked about Barbers and any attempt to pad the senator’s votes. He says Garcillano wanted to know who was leading in Talitay, although he says he does not remember which candidate the commissioner was interested in. Asdala also says he could not have intervened in Columbio, a town in Sultan Kudarat.
On June 8, meanwhile, the president made yet another call to Garcillano, shortly after Namfrel’s Abdullah Dalidig appeared that day in a press conference at a Quezon City restaurant alleging “dagdag-bawas” in Lanao del Sur. Garcillano offered to get Sumalipao, provincial election supervisor of Lanao del Sur, to help. “…Rey Sumalipao, the supervisor, is coming, and we will also try to make him say something after this. Pagsasalitahin ko sila ho (I will make him talk) without letting the people know that I am the one who will address it ho,” he told the president.
Sumalipao is now Comelec’s assistant regional director for ARMM, a position once held by Magbutay. But just four days before the May 10 polls, Magbutay had been booted upstairs.
The Comelec national office had decided to pull out its regional director for ARMM, Helen Flores, on May 6, replacing her with Magbutay. The move took Flores, who was transferred to Western Mindanao (Region 9), and other election personnel by surprise. But according to a Comelec official in Mindanao, Flores was perceived to be “hardheaded” and “’di nila mapasunod (they can’t make her follow).” This was despite her closeness to Garcillano, with whom she served in the task force that supervised the 1995 Sulu special voters’ registration.
Magbutay, meanwhile, is also described as a “Garcillano protégé.” He had worked for Garcillano when the latter was the provincial election supervisor of Misamis Occidental.” Most of the election supervisors whose names cropped up in the wiretapped conversations are also said to be close to Garcillano.
New uses for military and police might
Based on the recorded conversations, it obviously did not escape President Arroyo’s knowledge that the police and military had done extra tasks in the elections and its aftermath in Mindanao.
When Garcillano’s attention was called about the affidavits supposedly from teachers and the board of canvassers in Pangutaran, Sulu of how they were made to cheat, the commissioner told Arroyo in their May 29 conversation: “Kasi sila General Habacon ba, hindi masyadong marunong pa diyan, medyo sila ang umano n’un (It’s General Habacon, they don’t know that much).”
He also lay the blame on the problems that followed the elections in Basilan on the military. “Hindi masyadong marunong kasi silang gumawa eh. Katulad ho doon sa Sulu, si General Habacon (They don’t know what to do, like in Sulu with General Habacon).”
He was referring to Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, commanding general of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, whose area of operation covers Basilan, Sulu, and the Zamboanga peninsula.
The elections commissioner also complained to President Arroyo about problems in Marawi because of Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani, the Marine commander in charge of the Lanao provinces. But he reported that Gudani was no longer at his post. (See “Master Operator”).
Garcillano spoke too soon. Days later, Gudani returned to his command, triggering an angry reaction from a certain Gene who called Garcillano on June 8: “Boss, nakatanggap ako ng certification ngayon dito galing sa mga bata natin sa Lanao, nag failure na naman pala dahil kay Gudani (Boss, I received the certification from our boys in Lanao; there’s been a failure of elections again because of Gudani).”
Yet another conversation indicates that a more helpful military had beaten the opposition in getting its hands on Pangutaran election officer (EO) Ebron. But that may not have been pleasant for the hapless EO, as a frustrated Garcillano is heard requesting Ruben to tell the military, one of whose members had apparently slapped Ebron, to lay off.
Meanwhile, the help of the Intelligence Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) was sought in locating Tipo-Tipo election officer Hali. Boy reported to Garcillano that he had gotten in touch with a Col. Undug, said to be Col. Aminkadra Salahuddin Undug of ISAFP’s MIG9 based in Zamboanga.
Garcillano was apparently also coordinating with the police, telling. Arroyo that his people in Zamboanga were already cooperating with Arturo Lomibao, then head of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and now PNP chief.
In a June 5 conversation with Garcillano, Boy was also told that Lomibao and PNP Chief Hermogenes Ebdane would be calling him about the teacher in Languyan who was expected to testify on the cheating in the elections.
All these may not be news to Guimid Matalam, who says that in Sulu, cheating was supposedly carried out during the canvassing done in military camps. But the 67-year-old veteran politician is not giving up. On August 8, the former three-term congressman from Maguindanao will be trying his luck as the opposition bet in the ARMM gubernatorial election. He thinks the election process can still work. But he has submitted a list of proposal for electoral reforms to the Commission on Elections.
(VERA Files trustee Yvonne Chua wrote this report for I Report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She was then the center’s training director.)