Migz Zubiri cheated..!

“The Dr. Jekyll of the Migs Zubiri persona as an individual would, then, be permanently overwhelmed by the monstrous character of Mr. Hyde lurking in the role played by Zubiri as a politician without scruples…


After tediously producing documentary and testimonial evidence, Koko Pimentel as of today posts an insurmountable lead over Migs Zubiri by some 257,000 votes.



To paraphrase the words of the chair of the Senate Electoral Tribunal, the lead of Koko Pimentel can no longer be overtaken in law or in fact.
”

Migz Zubiri cheated..!

By: Dan Mariano

Not a few Filipinos believe that the outcomes of the 2004 presidential race and the 2007 midterm elections had been tainted with massive fraud.

Admittedly, that belief was based, for the most part, on rumor and suspicious chains of events.


Recent revelations, however, have begun to erase doubts. Former Muslim Mindanao governor Zaldy Ampatuan and erstwhile Commission on Elections (Comelec) official Lintang Bidol have said that they are now willing to give testimonial and other evidence on the election fraud, which they helped undertake for the benefit of then-president Gloria M. Arroyo and the political coalition that supported her.



One of the victims of poll fraud in 2007 is lawyer Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd, who was knocked out of the winning column of senatorial candidates thanks to the inexplicable surge of votes for the pro-GMA slate in Maguindanao. As one result, Miguel “Migs” Zubiri managed to have himself proclaimed as one of the winners.



Pimentel has protested his apparent loss before the Senatorial Electoral Tribunal, where his case has dragged on for over four years. His father, former Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. has sent media a “briefer” on how Ampatuan and Bedol’s exposes affect his election protest against Zubiri.



Below is a reproduction of key portions of Nene’s briefer:



Flashback


Migs Zubir was proclaimed winner over Koko Pimentel by the Comelec under the chairmanship of the unlamented... Ben Abalos in the senatorial elections of 2007.



Basis of the proclamation: The Comelec, then, brazenly credited Migs Zubiri with 194,000 or so fake votes from the province of Maguindanao.



The inclusion of those fraudulent votes gave Migs Zubiri a false lead over Koko Pimentel of something like 18,000 votes.

Koko Pimentel protested.

After tediously producing documentary and testimonial evidence, Koko Pimentel as of today posts an insurmountable lead over Migs Zubiri by some 257,000 votes.



To paraphrase the words of the chair of the Senate Electoral Tribunal, the lead of Koko Pimentel can no longer be overtaken in law or in fact.



Fast forward


Last Monday [July 11] and Wednesday [July 13], the nation was rocked by public revelations of Zaldy Ampatuan and Lintang Bidol respectively.

Their separate astonishing statements brought over live by television and radio and carried by print media further confirmed Koko Pimentel’s charges that massive fraud underpinned Zubiri’s proclamation by the Abalos Comelec.



Why do Ampatuan’s and Bidol’s exposes matter?



• Because Ampatuan as the then regional governor of the [Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)] was the highest ranking political figure in the region, which had jurisdiction over Maguindanao among other provinces.



• Because Lintal Bidol was then Maguindanao’s provincial Comelec officer.



• And in their public admissions, they both acted in concert to falsify the results of the elections in Maguindanao to favor, among other [GMA] administration candidates, Migs Zubiri.

Ampatuan and Bidol, it appears, were the chief implementors of the cheating operations in Maguindanao that undermined Koko Pimentel and other opposition candidates like then-senator Benigno Aquino [3rd], now president of the Republic.

Ampatuan and Bidol said they sabotaged the elections in Maguindanao under the instructions of [GMA] and her cabal of political manipulators.



Analysis of the exposes

1. The Ampatuan and Bidol public statements corroborate Koko Pimentel’s documentary and testimonial proof of massive electoral cheating in Maguin-danao that led to the criminal proclamation of Migs Zubiri as a senator.



2. The Ampatuan/Bidol exposes are not simply those of ordinary witnesses. Ampatuan and Bidol were officially, personally and directly involved in the use of counterfeit ballots in the said Maguindanao elections.



3. Their disclosures, thus, cannot simply be ignored.



Effect on Migs Zubiri’s proclamation


1. With the Ampatuan/Bidol confessions, the facade of the legitimacy of Migs Zubiri’s proclamation has totally collapsed.



2. Migs Zubiri was proclaimed, among other reasons, by the Abalos Comelec, which fallaciously credited him with 194,000 or so manufactured votes in Maguindanao.



3. Despite being illegally credited with those counterfeit ballots, Migs Zubiri supposedly led Koko Pimentel with only 18,000 or so phony votes.



4. Perforce, in logic and law, in justice and in equity, with the recognition that cannot be refuted in any manner that 194,000 or so false ballots in Maguindanao were unlawfully used as basis proclaim Migs Zubiri, his pretensions to a seat in the Senate had been demolished.

Migs Zubiri has, therefore, no right whatsoever to cling to the contested seat in the Senate.


Conclusion



Early on in the events leading to Migs Zubiri’s... proclamation and to the legal protest of Koko Pimentel, the former was quoted as having said that he would not sit in the Senate when it is shown that cheating characterized his supposed election as a senator.

Since it is now plainly incon-trevertible that massive heating in Maguindanao led to his unlawful proclamation as a senator, Migs Zubiri should now comply with his rhetoric and give back the contested Senate seat to Koko Pimentel.



Otherwise, Migs Zubiri will wind up as the personification of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the political annals of this country.



The good name of “Zubiri”— previously untainted, as I understand, by proven corrupt election cheating—would now be associated with devious, deceitful and dishonest electoral maneuvers.

It would not be farfetched to say that innovative punsters would in time associate the name “Zubiri” with electoral sabotage, ‘sabotaje’ in our local language.



Graceful way out?


Resignation is one option.

Or fast resolution of the cases now pending before the Senate Electoral Tribunal and the Supreme Court dealing with the protest of Koko Pimentel.

Truly said but indubitably true that roughly four years of the questioned senatorial term have already been eaten up in the dilatory and deceptive tactics employed by Migs Zubiri in the Senate Electoral Tribunal.



Time is of the essence. Unless decided soonest, the injustice to the people who voted for Koko Pimentel and to the latter would become irreparable.



The Dr. Jekyll of the Migs Zubiri persona as an individual would, then, be permanently overwhelmed by the monstrous character of Mr. Hyde lurking in the role played by Zubiri as a politician without scruples.