ML tied to poll cheating

“The Ampatuans have threatened that if the government would nail them down, they would reveal what really happened in the past two elections,” Pimentel said.

He said he was informed that during the series of raids conducted by the military and police forces, the raiders discovered and confiscated ballot boxes containing election documents.

He said he was also told that election officials assigned to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have been ordered to examine and take custody of the documents.

He said he is worried that the election documents may be tampered with or destroyed because certain election officials in the ARMM were involved in the cheating operations in the 2004 and 2007 polls.

Pimentel said it should be the Comelec officials in Manila who should scrutinize and take custody of these documents. He suggested that a team from Comelec main office be dispatched to Maguindanao and should be led by lawyer Fernando Rafanan, head of the legal department.

“But due to martial law, the public may not be able to know what is happening. The people are afraid to speak. Even journalists may not be able to report the truth because of threat to their lives. Warrantless arrests are being enforced and they can be picked up on order of martial law authorities,” he said.
Pimentel said he finds no legal grounds for declaring martial law as a means of going after the perpetrators of the November 23 massacre of 57 innocent civilians.

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