Press Release
June 17, 2007

ABALOS DENOUNCED OVER MAGUINDANAO TRIP
WHICH COULD LEAD TO TALLYING OF DUBIOUS COC

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino 'Nene' Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today assailed a plan of Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos to go to Maguindanao as head of a team that will supposedly look for the missing certificate of canvass and other supporting documents on the results of the May 14 elections in the province that could pave the way for the tabulation of the falsified certificates to favor Team Unity senatorial candidates.

He expressed apprehension that the missing municipal COC, SOVs and other election documents may suddenly surface and be turned over to Comelec team to justify the tabulation of the Maguindanao COC and its inclusion in the national canvass of senatorial votes even after Abalos himself branded the senatorial results from the province as statistically improbable.

Stressing the need for transparency in the Comelec's action in resolving the Maguindanao fiasco, Pimentel sought the disclosure of the schedule of the trip of Abalos and his team, including the places they will visit and the people they intend to meet with.

"Abalos' search for stolen Maguindanao COC, like the search for the Holy Grail, must proceed from pure motives. He must announce where he will start, how he will do it, and the people he will contact and meet in the province," he said.

Comelec team should make its mission transparent by allowing the media to fully cover its activities and representatives of the National Movement for Free Elections, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente), political parties and local non-government organizations to witness the proceedings.

"Otherwise, dubious COCs may be submitted to Abalos and complicate the situation even further," Pimentel said.

"Abalos," the senator said, "should not be led into the temptation of accepting just about any COC to lay the basis for a TU victory in Maguindanao."

Meanwhile, Pimentel denounced the reported abduction of two public school teachers from Maguindanao who were among the witnesses who have agreed to testify on the massive electoral fraud in the province.

He requested the Philippine National Police to look into a report that Fatima Salimbang and Bantilan Sindatuk, who served as election inspectors in South Upi, Maguindanao, were abducted by six men in Cebu City last week while they were on their way to Manila to testify on the poll irregularities in the province.

Raul de la Torre of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino in Zamboanga City said he was escorting Salimbang and Sindatuk when the kidnapping took place as their ship docketed in Cebu City to unload and receive passengers and cargoes.

A week before, Musa Dimasingsing, school supervisor in Pagalungan, Mindanao, who helped the teachers expose the electoral fraud, was killed by gunmen in front of a madrasah school in Pikit, Maguindanao where they have taken refuge.

"The government should be held responsible for the killing and abduction of the public school teachers in Cebu City for failing to extend protection to them after they came forward to blow the whistle on the rampant cheating," Pimentel said.

The Mindanao senator said the failure of Comelec and the Department of Justice to put the Maguindanao teachers under the Witness Protection Program indicates that the Arroyo administration is trying to cover up the election anomalies, or worse, may be a part of a well-organized cheating conspiracy.

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