Machinery for Cheating in ARMM Being Laid Out - Dalidig

Hadji Abdullah Dalidig, the Namfrel officer in Lanao del Sur who testified before the Senate in 2005 about the manipulation of election results in his province during the May 2004 elections said that the very same machinery and practices are being put into place in preparation for the May 2007 elections.

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
In the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), flying voters are paid P200 each ($4.21 at an exchange rate of $1=P47.46) to register in as many precincts as possible, Hadji Abdullah Dalidig said in an interview with Bulatlat.

Dalidig is the controversial Namfrel (National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections) officer in Lanao del Sur who testified before the Senate in 2005 about the manipulation of election results in his province during the May 2004 presidential elections. In his testimony before the Senate, Dalidig said the May 2004 presidential elections was the “dirtiest” of all five elections he has monitored in Lanao del Sur.

Daligdig said that these newly-recruited flying voters would augment the flying voters who registered for the May 2004 elections but “have not been deleted” from the official list of registered voters. Records from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) shows there are 100,000 more registered voters for the 2007 elections than in 2004 in Lanao del Sur.

Hadji Abdullah Dalidig, ex-Namfrel official and Lanao del Sur poll fraud whistleblower


“I doubt that the May 2007 elections will be credible,” the Namfrel officer said. Dalidig will again serve as Namfrel officer in Lanao del Sur for the coming elections. The COMELEC approved the petition of Namfrel to conduct a quick count of the results of the May 2007 elections.

Lanao del Sur is one of the five provinces of the ARMM together with Basilan, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

As of April 28, 2004, the number of registered voters in ARMM is 1,057,458. Lanao del Sur registered the second highest number of registered voters (275,572) from among the five ARMM provinces.

Vote buying

Vote buying is also rampant in ARMM, Dalidig said.

In fact, he said a powerful political clan in ARMM, which is aligned with the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration has allegedly sworn to give each mayor a cash incentive of P1 million ($21,070) each if Team Unity, the administration’s senatorial slate, wins 12-0 in their respective municipalities.

Another source, whose name is withheld for security reasons, said the same powerful clan is allegedly Macapagal-Arroyo’s “cheating operator in ARMM.” The clan has allegedly received P60 million ($1,264,222) from three wealthy senatorial bets of the administration to ensure their win in the region. The said clan has also allegedly received P200 million ($4,214,075) from the administration to ensure a 12-0 win for Team Unity, the source said.

To ensure the “grand plan” for cheating in the May 2007 elections in ARMM, the source said, a member of the clan will be appointed as the seventh COMELEC commissioner just before the May 2007 elections. The new appointee will replace Virgilio Garcillano or “Garci,” the COMELEC official caught on tape talking with Macapagal –Arroyo in the infamous “Hello, Garci” scandal. In the said tape, the president was allegedly overheard asking Garcillano to make sure she leads by one million votes over her rival, actor Fernando Poe Jr., in the May 2004 presidential elections. Bulatlat