IN a hurriedly called press conference this morning, a Malacañang political operative made what are potentially the most damaging allegations of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's involvement in electoral fraud since the "Hello Garci" tapes were made public in June.
Michaelangelo "Louie" Zuce, a presidential staff officer assigned from February 2001 to July 2004 to the Office of the Presidential Liaison Officer for Political Affairs headed by Lakas stalwart Joey Rufino, also accused the Office of the President of directly bribing and otherwise getting the cooperation of elections officials in Mindanao to ensure Mrs. Arroyo's victory.
The burly Zuce, a nephew by affinity of the disgraced elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, whose wiretapped conversations set off the gravest crisis of the Arroyo presidency, also attested to his role in the fraud, which included conniving with election officials in Mindanao to make sure Mrs. Arroyo led in the count. (Click here for Zuce's sworn statement.)
Zuce, who said he came out publicly because his life was in danger, apparently also acted as his uncle's trusted messenger, runner and companion. He said that his tasks, dating to 18 to 20 months before the May 2004 elections, included raising funds for, organizing meetings with, and distributing payoffs to, Mindanao election officials.
Even more damaging, Zuce said that some of the payoffs made to Mindanao-based provincial election supervisors and regional directors of the Commission on Elections came from Pampanga-based jueteng lord Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda and his wife Lilia. He also confirmed that 27 regional directors and provincial election supervisors from Mindanao had a secret dinner with Mrs. Arroyo at her La Vista, Quezon City home in January 2004.
During that dinner, which Garcillano and then Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy Jr. allegedly also attended, the election officials were introduced to the President by Mrs. Pineda, Zuce said. After the introductions, Mrs. Arroyo supposedly made a short speech asking for the officials' support in the elections.
The President then left and proceeded to another engagement. "As we were leaving, Mrs. Pineda gave RD (regional director) Johnny Icaro white envelopes for all of us," Zuce's affidavit said. "When we opened them in the vehicles, we found that each envelope contained P30,000."
In impromptu remarks made in the launching of a breastfeeding program this morning, Mrs. Arroyo denied any involvement in election fraud and accused her opponents of "waging a black propaganda against me, saying I am this and I am that, especially those who are angry, those who are in need of money and whose testimonies are for sale."
Later, in an interview with ABC-5, she said, "Ang masasabi ko walang nagbibigay ng suhol sa harap ko (All I can say is no one gives out bribes in front of me)."
Indeed, Zuce said the President was no longer there when the payoffs were made. What his affidavit alleges is her "knowledge and direct participation" in the rigging of the elections as attested to by:
- Her canny appointment of Garcillano, after he had proven that he had a personal network of key Comelec people in Mindanao who would do his bidding;
- Her personal knowledge of the attempts to influence the election officials through meetings and "consultations," as attested to in the approval by the Office of the President of these consultations;
- Her approval of the release of funds for such consultations with key Mindanao Comelec personnel;
- Her personal appeal for support, as a candidate, from officials of a supposedly nonpartisan election body; and
- Her tacit approval of the role the Pineda couple allegedly played in getting the cooperation of the Comelec bureaucrats.
Presidential Political Adviser Gabriel Claudio called the charges "incredible and fantastic," saying that it didn't make sense that a minor functionary like Zuce would be included in meetings to which his boss, Rufino, was not. Rufino, he said, was ill with cancer and could not answer the allegations directly. (Both Claudio and Undersecretary for Political Affairs Raymundo Roquero, however, confirm that Zuce was employed in the Office of the President, first under Rufino, and from September 2004 to last May, under Roquero.)
While the account of the dinner at the presidential home may be the most sensational of Zuce's allegations, his sworn statement also reveals a deliberate and organized effort by the Office of the President to influence the outcome of 2004.
Zuce's narration begins in October 2002, when he introduced his uncle, then Comelec Region 10 director, to Rufino, who subsequently endorsed Garcillano's appointment to the President. Apparently to ensure his nomination as commissioner, Garcillano proposed a "nationwide consultation" with Comelec officials, which was a thinly disguised attempt to get these officials' support for the president.
Garcillano, according to Zuce, was "used by PGMA during the elections in exchange for his ambition to become a Comelec commissioner."
Garcillano began by asking for a budget of P2.4 million, but only P1 million was initially approved by the President and this was used for three "consultations" with Mindanao elections officials, some of them coinciding with the Comelec sports fests that Garcilliano was famous for organizing.
During the consultations held in Mindanao, these election officials "expressed their willingness to support PGMA's candidacy depending on what Director Garcillano wanted them to do," Zuce's affidavit said. "The Mindanao election officials present also said that Atty. Garcillano should be appointed Commissioner so that he would be behind them and be able to answer for them in their efforts of supporting PGMA."
In all three consultations, Garcillano distributed P20,000 each for regional directors and provincial election supervisors, P15,000 for city election officers, P10,000 for municipal election officers and P5,000 for selected staff of Comelec Mindanao, said Zuce. Garcillano, Zuce added, made the point to say that the cash was "being given by PGMA in appreciation of their expression of support of her candidacy."
A second round of payoffs was made to Mindanao regional directors and provincial elections supervisors at a meeting organized by Rufino's office at the Grand Boulevard Hotel on Roxas Boulevard in Manila in late 2003. During that meeting, Zuce said that he personally distributed to the Comelec officials P17,000 each in white envelopes.
A third meeting with Mindanao Comelec officials, again at the Grand Boulevard, was held in January 2004, where three of Rufino's staff distributed P25,000 each to the attendees.
A month later, Garcillano was named Comelec commissioner, with strong endorsements from Rufino and a manifesto signed by Comelec officials in Mindanao. Zuce said that Garcillano told him that Mrs. Pineda "was asked by higher-ups to help in the confirmation of Comm. Garcillano before the Commission on Appointments."
Once ensconced in the Comelec, Garcillano began planning a "big special operation" in Mindanao under his supervision, said Zuce.
To get the ball rolling, the Comelec commissioner planned a junket in Manila for 27 Mindanao regional directors and provincial election supervisors. Zuce said that his uncle asked him to get Rufino to fund trip. Garcilliano also allegedly brought Zuce to the Pinedas' Greenhills, San Juan home to plan such an operation, which would include the assignment of people and the vehicles that would be needed.
Also at that meeting, Bong Pineda, according to Zuce, gave him P150,000 to cover the costs of the Manila junket, including a three-day stay at the Rothman Hotel in Malate. It was also then that the dinner with Mrs. Arroyo was announced.
For the election operations proper, Zuce said he was asked to:
- Prepare the budget for the Mindanao operations, on the instructions of Garcillano and Rufino
- Coordinate the delivery of vehicles needed for the Mindanao operations (four Pajeros and two jeeps courtesy of Pagcor chief Ephraim Genuino)
- Monitor and coordinate with Comelec officials and employees to ensure Mrs. Arroyo's victory. "In places where PGMA would be losing, I was to talk to them to find ways to reduce her loss or to add votes in her bailiwicks," said Zuce's affidavit. His area of operations included the Misamis provinces, Lanao provinces, Marawi City, Cotabato City, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, South Cotabato and Sarangani. He was also coordinating, through mobile phone, with operatives in the Zamboanga provinces, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and Zamboanga City.
Among the more sensational contents of Zuce's affidavit is the revelation that Garcillano was given P12 million for the Mindanao operations, an amount the commissioner said was not sufficient. Zuce said he was brought by his uncle to a condominium on Macapagal Blvd. in Pasay and shown a closet filled with P1,000-bills wrapped in plastic.
