MANILA – Seventy five percent of the people surveyed by IBON believe there is truth to the allegation that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was involved in corruption and cheating in the May 2004 national elections. The March 16-25 nationwide survey conducted by IBON Foundation, a think-tank identified with the Left, said that 75 percent of the 1,416 respondents surveyed said they believe the allegations that Arroyo engaged in corrupt practices and cheated in the presidential election.

It said this represents an 8 percent increase from the 67 percent recorded in the January 2006 survey, IBON said. Five percent said there was no truth to the charges, a 2 percent increase from the previous survey. Antonio Tujan, research director of IBON, said the growing perception might be a result of factors such as government’s refusal to make public the findings of the Mayuga board which cleared four generals implicated in the alleged rigging of the May 2004 polls to ensure Arroyo’s victory.
The Mayuga board finished its investigation on the four so-called “Hello Garci” generals last December. Last week, Navy chief Vice Adm. Mateo Mayuga who headed the probe which started in July last year said not a single witness testified against the four officers - Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. (ret.) Roy Kyamko, current Southcom chief Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon and former 1st Marine Brigade chief Brig. Gen. (ret.) Francisco Gudani.  On Monday, the Armed Forces said it would not make public the 15-page Mayuga report as it has been marked “classified.” Tujan said another factor that could have contributed to the perception that Arroyo cheated in the 2004 elections is the “mutiny” of some AFP units last February, “again supposedly due to the allegation of electoral cheating.” Arroyo on Feb. 24 placed the country under a state of national emergency for what she said was a plot of some members of the political opposition, the Left and military “adventurists” to overthrow her government.
Meanwhile, the military has refused to release to the public the full Mayuga report on the alleged involvement of senior officers in the 2004 presidential elections despite an order from President Arroyo.
Instead of providing a copy of the report as requested by a senator, Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado dared critics to produce evidence to disprove the report of Navy chief Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga that cleared four senior officers of any link to poll fraud.
At the House of Representatives, the opposition intends to grill Mayuga himself over his report on the so-called “Hello Garci” generals.
“We will have Admiral Mayuga take the hot seat to answer questions about his exoneration of these generals,” Minority Leader Francis Escudero told a news conference.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the Senate committee on defense and national security, had written to the AFP asking that he be furnished a copy of the report to help him study  why the officers were cleared. Biazon addressed his letter to Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, following Mrs. Arroyo’s assurance that a copy would be made available to the public.
“If they feel something is missing or something is wrong with the report... they should look for evidence and submit it to us so we can reevaluate the report based on the new evidence,” Honrado said during an interview with reporters at Camp Aguinaldo.