The
Commission on Elections (Comelec) filed 11 additional counts of electoral
sabotage against former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos and former chair of
South Cotabato’s Provincial Board of Canvasser, Lilian Suan-Radam before the
Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 117. Esmeralda Ladra who is the
head of the Comelec legal department filed the information and was raffled
already recently which ended up in the sala of Judge Eugenio de le Cruz. Ladra
told that the case was originally filed with the RTC branch 114, which issued a
warrant of arrest against Radam.
If we
could recall, Radam surfaced last October 2011 at the Department of Justice
(DoJ) and implicated Abalos in the alleged election fraud.
“We
withdrew the case against Radam and re-filed it, this time including chairman
Abalos,” Ladra said.
RTC
clerk of court Luithe Cabangunay said the judge will study the case before
setting the date of arraignment.
Meanwhile,
Atty. Brigido Dulay who is the counsel for Abalos said that they are ready to
face the charges in court.
The
complaint alleged that Abalos and Radam tampered falsified and bloated the
votes of administration senatorial candidates in the Provincial Certificate of
Canvass during the May 24, 2007 national canvassing.
Allegedly,
the tampered election results came from General Santos
City
The
alleged tampered election results were submitted to the National Board of Canvassers,
which was then canvassing the senatorial election results at the Philippine
International Convention Center PICC) in Pasay City.
James
Jimenaz, the Comelec spokeperson said that based on the additional complaint,
they find Abalos personally instructed Radam to come up with a 12 – 0 result in
favour of administration candidates.
Beneficiaries
of the supposedly tampered results for senators were Senator Joker Arroyo,
Edgardo Angara, Ralph Racto, Mike Defensor, Prospero Pichay, Jr., Tito Sotto,
Vicente Magsaysay, Tessie Aquino-Oreta, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Luis Singson.
According to Jimenez, additional charges were filed against Abalos because he
was not included in the previous complaint filed against Radam. # ANT
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento