RIYADH, 2 August 2005 — Volunteers and partisans in last year’s Philippine overseas absentee voting exercise in the Kingdom told a campaigner of Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday to show proof of his fraud allegations, or shut up.

Rene Caseda, founding chair of the Calabarzon group, claimed during a forum at the Elite International School in Riyadh last week that cheating apparently happened at the Philippine Embassy during the May 2004 election and that Lacson was one of the victims.

He said that Lacson got not a single vote from the precincts in Riyadh where about a thousand of his supporters from Um’al Hamam supposedly cast their ballots. He also claimed that the penmanship in the ballots were almost uniform, indicating that these were done by a few people.

Caseda and some community members launched the “Oust PGMA” initiative during the forum, saying President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (whose name the acronym stands for) does not deserve to stay longer as president because she won by fraudulent means.

A number of opposition legislators have filed an impeachment complaint against Arroyo in the Philippine House of Representatives on the ground that she violated the constitution when she repeatedly called an election official when votes were being counted.

In Saudi Arabia, Arroyo got a total of 22,377 votes in the three designated voting places — Riyadh, Alkhobar and Jeddah.

Lacson was a distant second with 13,597, actor Fernando Poe Jr. got 9,642 votes, television evangelist Eddie Villanueva was fourth with 5,393 votes, and former Senator Raul Roco got 5,017 votes.

Poll Watchdog

Ronnie Abeto, an engineer who served as country coordinator in Saudi Arabia of the Philippine poll watchdog Namfrel, or National Movement for Free Elections, said Caseda’s published allegations initially made him laugh, but he realized that it had serious implications.

“Show me proof of election fraud ... (and) I will join you in your campaign,” said Abeto in an e-mail to Caseda.

Abeto, who flew to Riyadh from Yanbu to serve as the official watcher for the canvassing of votes by the Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC) during the canvassing of votes, noted that Namfrel contested some “procedural lapses” committed by Special Board of Election Inspectors (SBEI) volunteers and some protests were even filed before two or three precincts.

“(But) I can truly say that those could not be considered as election fraud as Mr. Caseda is alleging,” he said.

Abeto added that Caseda and other partisans were advised by Namfrel volunteers about the procedure in filing protests and recording the same to the minutes of election proceedings, yet Lacson’s group had not indicated any such protest during the precinct-level counting and during the canvassing.

“Together with my volunteer colleagues in Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), I find the remarks of my brod (Caseda) in Order of the Knights of Rizal (OKOR) questionable,” said Alexander del Pilar, chairman of the Namfrel’s operation quick count in Riyadh.

“We are proud to be a part of the very first OAV, although as a watchdog, but yes we did just that — watched like a dog, barking at wrong instances, as it was our duty to do so,” added del Pilar.

Disservice to Lacson

Rashid Fabricante, who was deputized by the Commission on Eletion as member-secretary of the SBOC, said that Caseda’s “baseless, unfounded, and absurd” charges “deserved the strongest denunciation from the more than 200 well-meaning Filipino community (Filcom) volunteers” in Riyadh.

Fabricante also said Caseda’s wild pronouncements were a “disservice to Senator Ping Lacson’s integrity” because it seems that he and his fellow watchers didn’t understand their duties and responsibilities.

Consul Germinia Usudan, who served as chair of the SBOC in Riyadh, earlier questioned Caseda’s motive in raising his complaint only now, more than a year after the election.

“If there was fraud in the precinct level as Caseda et.al claim, they should have made a protest during the canvassing of the ballots in the precinct level. And again during the canvassing of the Election Returns (ERs) at the Special Board of Canvassers (SBOC) level. But there was none. We heard nothing from them,” she told Arab News earlier.

Slap in the Face

Angel R. Pantoja, chairman of the Volunteers for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (V4GMA), challenged Caseda to prove his charges lest he will be accused of just trying to gain publicity mileage.

“It is like a slap in the face of all those who served in the OAV of the May 2004 election in Riyadh,” he said. “If he can prove that Lacson lost to GMA in Saudi Arabia because he was cheated, I may even join him in his crusade,” Pantoja added.

Cesar Saavedra, a leader of the umbrella group Uncle and who campaigned for Lacson, said he declined the invitation of Caseda to the launching of the “Oust PGMA” initiative because it was “a wrong move.”

“Why don’t we just follow the rule of law? Who will benefit if we remove GMA from power? Definitely not the economy,” he said.

Saavedra, a Bagong Bayani (new hero) awardee, lamented that Filipinos seem to always want to cut corners in doing things.

“Ang titigas talaga ng ulo nating Pinoy, ayaw yata natin ng tamang solusyon at lahat ay gustong makuha sa madaling pamamaraan (We, Filipino, are hard-headed. We seem to disdain correct solutions to our problems. We always want to cut corners,” he said.

Saavedra said following the rule of law is the mark of a patriot. “Prove that GMA committed a wrongdoing, and if proven, apply the rule of law. Simple and yet, bakit ayaw unawain ng taumbayan? (why can’t we understand that?)” he said.