OPPOSITION TOLD TO BE WARY OF ELECTION WHISTLE
BLOWERS WITH ULTERIOR MOTIVES

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today advised the political opposition to check on the motive of election operators Arsenio Rasalan and Clinton Colcol for coming out and revealing their alleged participation in the rigging of the results of the 2004 presidential election to ensure the victory of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Cautioning the opposition against being used for ulterior motives of the whistle-blowers, Pimentel expressed apprehension that Rasalan and Colcol are now spilling the beans on the electoral fraud to enable them to obtain financial concessions from the scam masters.

Using tainted sources is always a two-edged sword. If Rasalan and Colcol were part of the manipulation of the 2004 presidential election under the supervision of Commissioners Virgilio Garcillano, it is difficult to believe that they would now act freely on their own violation to speak the truth, he said.

But this is not to say that they should not be heard or believed.

Pimentel said the fact alone that the scheduled press conference of Rasalan and Colcol last Thursday was cancelled should already warn those who want to use them to be extra-careful.

He also cited reports attributed to the handlers of Rasalan and Colcol that some of the election operators who falsified the poll documents by padding the votes for Arroyo and reducing those for Fernando Poe, Jr. complained that they did not get he amount of payment that they were promised.

Pimentel said prudence should dictate that recklessly believing the story of Rasalan and Colcol as the gospel truth is full of danger.

For one, they may want to be paid more than what they had probably been paid for the past services to their past masters, he said.

There were instances in the past when election officers, political operators and other personalities who took part in the 2004 dagdag-bawas operations had volunteered to squeal and testify before the Senate only to back out later after they were approached by the administration and offered bribe money.