| MANILA – The Citizens Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA) or people’s court May 9 found President Arroyo guilty of electoral fraud, human rights violation and graft and corruption and recommended that she step down. |
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 The 203-page document was presented by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, CCTA presidium chairman, at a news conference at Club Filipino in San Juan. Guingona said evidence from various sources and testimonies of several personalities showed the administration and its allies in Congress have long sought to hide that the electoral fraud that marred the 2004 presidential election had the blessings of the administration. Sen. Aquilino Pimentel said the verdict can be used in a new impeachment trial.
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The group started its hearings five
months ago. “The plan to commit the electoral fraud, meticulous and systematic,
was locked in place beginning with the appointment of Virgilio Garcillano to
the highest level of the very constitutional body paid by the Filipino people
to safeguard their sacred choice of national leaders,” said Guingona. It
also found strong basis to conclude that the victory of Arroyo and Vice
President Noli de Castro in Cebu, Pampanga, Iloilo
and Bohol was a result of manufactured and
tampered election returns.
It also found Arroyo liable for the use
of about P7.6 billion in public funds for election-related programs in the
months prior to the election, the largest of which is the P728 million
allocated for the Ginintuang Masagana program of the Department of Agriculture,
which ballooned into the “fertilizer fund scam.”
It said Arroyo was liable for the
widespread and systematic campaign of summary executions, abductions, acts of
political repression and other human rights abuses since she came to power in
2001.
Militant and human rights groups said
abuses by state security forces worsened even as Arroyo sought to hide her
dictatorial inclination through legal niceties. They said Arroyo violated
anti-graft laws, particularly through the diversion of public funds for her
election campaign and for entering into transactions like with Venable LLP, a US lobby group,
and the multi-billion peso North Rail Project which were found to be
disadvantageous to government. It said the allegation of crimes committed by
the President and challenges to her mandate and legitimacy were met with the
twin acts of cover-up and state repression as exemplified by the issuance of
Executive Order 464, the calibrated preemptive response and Presidential
Proclamation 1017. The fact-finding body recommended that an official process
be started to pave the way for a genuine search for the truth and determination
of culpability of other officials involved in electoral fraud and other
violations. It said the process should also lead to the filing all
necessary actions constitutional, criminal, civil and administrative before the
proper bodies - against those who violated the laws.
It also recommended the issuance of a
statement urging the international community to withdraw aid and recognition
of the Arroyo administration, the filing
of a case with the United Nations human rights mechanism for violations of
international humanitarian laws and calling for amendment of all laws necessary
to reflect the democratic precepts of the people and the pursuit of electoral
and judicial reforms. “The country is a member of the United Nations. Hence,
all laws and provisions of the international covenant on human, civil and
political rights are parts of the law of the land so the violation were a
violation both of Philippine and international laws,” Guingona said. The
CCTA called for a sustained campaign against moves to revise the Constitution
and to conduct other actions in pursuit of the objectives of the Citizen’s
Congress. Guingona handed over the findings to House minority leader Francis
Escudero.
Escudero said the decision will certainly
be part of the impeachment complaint against Arroyo, which they hope to file by
July.
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