MANILA: A prosecution witness failed yesterday to directly link former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the alleged cheating in the 2007 elections in Maguindanao.
Susan Cabanban, former municipal election officer of SK Pendatun, Maguindanao, testified during direct examination at the Pasay City Regional Trial Court that the alleged cheating was orchestrated by provincial and election officials led by poll supervisor Lintang Bedol. Defence lawyer Ray Montri Santos said Cabanban never mentioned Arroyo as being involved in the cheating.
Cabanban said she was able to keep copies of the original election documents that were tampered and copied to a blank election results form. But the original documents are now missing. “I lost them, that was a long time ago,” she said.
She also admitted that the original results were never canvassed and the manufactured election documents were the ones submitted to the National Board of Canvassers.
Cabanban also told judge Jesus Mupas that Norie Unas, the former provincial administrator of Maguindanao, was present during a meeting where Comelec officers were told to alter the election results.
In her earlier testimony, Cabanban claimed that a man from the Maguindanao provincial capitol called her and told her that the results of the national elections would be canvassed at the capitol building of the province. “I did not recognise the voice but out of fear I complied,” she said. She told the court that the separate submission of the local and national results was irregular because the results should have been canvassed at the same time.
Cabanban was the first of the more than 50 witnesses lined up against Arroyo and her co-accused Bedol and former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr on the alleged cheating in the 2007 midterm elections. fter the hearing, Santos told reporters that the testimony of Cabanban has not proven any tampering of election results as alleged in the charges.
The Philippine Star
