i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...

likewise rebutted Zuce’s charges.
But Comelec regional director
Helen A. Flores, who was not in
any of the meetings Zuce said
took place from 2002 to 2004, says
Garcillano, through his security officer
and nephew Capt. Valentino
Lopez, had offered her P50 million
to rig the 2004 polls. Flores says
she spurned the offer. Four days
before election day, she was relieved
as regional director for the
Autonomous Region of Muslim
Mindanao and moved to Region 9
(Western Mindanao). Lopez, now
with the Army Headquarters Support
Group, denies involvement
in the bribery attempt.
ZUCE’S MINDANAO
TRIPS
On August 10, Capt. Marlon Mendoza,
a former Intelligence Service
officer assigned as Garcillano’s
chief security officer during the
polls, surfaced to say he flew to
Mindanao on May 11, 2004 on
Garcillano’s order, and accompanied
Zuce when the latter visited
Lanao del Norte and Cotabato
City. Mendoza told the Senate
he saw Zuce handing Lanao
provincial election supervisor Ray
Sumalipao a “large amount of cash
in an envelope” on May 12. A
Comelec director in Cotabato City
also received cash from Zuce on
May 14, he said.
Mendoza said that by May 16,
he and Zuce were in Iligan City.
As their group was having lunch in
a restaurant there, he heard someone
say, “Huling binibilang ang
balota sa
area ng Lanao del Norte
at Lanao del Sur para makakuha
ng dagdag (The ballots from Lanao
del Norte and Lanao del Sur will be
the last to be counted so we can
increase these) if GMA will lose in
other areas in the country.”
In a recorded May 29 conversation
with Garcillano, the president
had asked pointedly, “So will
I still lead by more than one million
(votes)?” The commissioner
replied that her rival’s count was
high but “mag-compensate
po
sa Lanao
‘yan (that will be com-
pensated in Lanao).” At the time,
the counting of votes from seven
towns in Lanao del Sur’s 39 provinces
was far from over.
Zuce says his uncle sent him
to Mindanao to coordinate with
the Comelec personnel there. He
says the region’s “special operations”
headed by Ernesto ‘Butch’
Paquingan, a political consultant
based in Cagayan de Oro City,
helped in ensuring Arroyo’s victory.
Zuce says Paquingan was
reporting directly to then Executive
Secretary Romulo.
Paquingan has called Zuce
a liar. Zuce, he added, told him
the opposition had offered him
P4 million to P5 million to testify
against Arroyo.
But an old hand in electoral
RIGGING THE COUNT.
“Special operations” in
Mindanao supposedly
widened Arroyo’s lead.
campaigns says Zuce worked
with Paquingan in previous polls,
including the 1998 elections. Many
candidates for national position
also engaged Paquingan’s services
to help them win in Mindanao,
says the campaign veteran.
In his Senate testimony, Mendoza
said Garcillano sent him
to Cagayan de Oro on May 11,
2004 as security officer for Zuce,
Paquingan, “King James,” and a
certain “Jun L. Bamboo” of the
Presidential Management Services.
He identified Paquingan as
“a consultant related to DFA Secretary
Romulo” and “King James”
as George Goking, whom he said
was Arroyo’s close friend.
In the “Hello, Garci” tapes,
there are two recorded conversations
between the Comelec commissioner
and Zuce. The first
was on May 28, 2004 when Garcillano
asked Zuce and Goking,
a Cagayan de Oro businessman
who is also a director of the Philippine
Amusements and Gaming
Corporation (Pagcor), to come to
his house for a meeting.
Zuce, who confirmed to the
Senate that he was among those recorded
in the “Hello, Garci” tapes,
called the commissioner again on
June 16 to say he and “George”
(apparently Goking) were at Harrison
Plaza. In both conversations,
Zuce addressed Garcillano as
“’cle,” short for uncle.
The campaign veteran says
Mindanao is home to many freelance
operators, including businessmen,
who help candidates
by buying votes for them. Zuce
had been Garcillano’s conduit
to some of these key players,
according to the source.
“(The operators) join Senate
party coalitions if not hired by
a senatorial candidate,” says the
campaign expert. “Then they
moonlight toward the finish line
either buying votes or doing
presidential campaigns. After
the campaign, they are hired as
political officers.”
The campaign veteran says
the operators have long been
in existence; all a candidate has
to do is tap into the existing
syndicates and networks.
“OPLAN MERCURY”
Businessman Rodolfo Galang,
however, says it is also important
to ensure the “cooperation” of local
officials and political rivals for
a candidate to win. Galang says
he volunteered to do this for the
president in parts of Mindanao
during the 2004 elections.
Galang, who co-owns a banana
chips processing plant in
Maguindanao with Paulino Ejercito,
brother of ousted President
Estrada, says he decided to help
the Arroyo camp because he
believed the country would not
benefit from a Poe presidency.
Galang had also been eyeing a
slot machine franchise from the
Pagcor. He never got it.
Soon after the polls, Galang
changed his mind about Arroyo
and executed on June 21, 2004
an affidavit he later filed with the
Office of the Ombudsman. His
affidavit charged the Arroyo administration
with buying off local
officials and opposition candidates
in Romblon and certain areas in
Mindanao under “Oplan Mercury.”
These were Lanao del Sur, Davao
City, Davao del Norte, Maguindanao,
Cotabato City, Davao Oriental,
South Cotabato, Davao del
Sur, Sulu, North Cotabato, Sultan
Kudarat, Tawi-Tawi, Samal, Compostela,
Sarangani, Zamboanga
Sibugay, and Bukidnon.
Galang says his conduit to the
president was Limcaoco. A March
28, 2004 memorandum for Arroyo
purportedly coursed through
Limcaoco identified the political
leaders who Galang said he could
convince to pledge their support
for the president, paving the way
for the conversion of about a third
of Poe’s projected votes to Arroyo’s.
He estimated this roughly
to be 1.6 million of the 5.5 million
votes in the “Mercury” areas.
The “conversion,” according to
Galang, could be made by using
the carrot of fund releases to convince
local government officials to
mobilize support for Arroyo. Thus,
in his affidavit, Galang implicated
the officials who made those fund
releases possible: Nena Valdez,
the president’s former Assumption
Convent classmate who reportedly
took charge of the funds released
for Oplan Mercury; then Agriculture
Secretary Luis Lorenzo for approving
the release of the fertilizers
given to Mindanao officials; then
National Food Authority director
Arthur Yap for the rice distributed
to them; Pagcor chair Ephraim
Genuino for the capital equipment
that was also given out; and then
Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit for
the medicine. (See “Running on
Taxpayer’s Money.”)
Before the March 2004 memo,
Galang says he submitted to the
president, again through Limcaoco,
analyses of the political situation
these places, including informal
surveys assessing the chances of
Arroyo and local candidates. The
document on Maguindanao projected
Poe would win 70 percent
of the votes, or about 284,310.
“Oplan Mercury” would pad the
votes to ensure that Arroyo got
262,2440, leaving Poe with only
43,740 votes. (PCIJ has copies of
the Maguindanao document and
the March 2004 memo.)
Right after Galang disclosed
“Oplan Mercury” in a press conference
last year, Limcaoco dismissed
his allegations as hearsay
and baseless. He said Galang had
volunteered to campaign for K-4
but “he was never my employee
or political operator. Nor did we
authorize or support any illegal
operation.”
Former Cabinet members
say it was unlikely Limcaoco
had time to mount such an operation.
They say taking care of
the K-4 senatorial candidates
was a full-time job.
Still, the president did post one
8 PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM I REPORT