Opposition welcomes return of election paraphernalia to Loren

The political opposition welcomed the move by the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to return the controversial seized election returns to former senator Loren Legarda.

Opposition lawmakers led by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., however, said the gesture does not absolve the members of the CIDG team along with operatives from the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) from any criminal liability in the illegal raid and seizure of the election documents.

"The return of the election documents merely mitigates their civil liability but not their personal culpability for violating the constitutional rights of Loren and Mr. (Segundo) Tabayoyong," Pimentel said.

He maintained the raid was unjustified since it was not authorized by a search warrant.

Joint operatives of the CIDG and ISAFP swooped down on the rented house of Tabayoyong in San Mateo, Rizal last Aug. 17, seizing some 41 boxes of election returns and firearms.

Even though the owner of the house called for police assistance, citing the presence of the firearms and the boxes of election documents, Pimentel said Tabayoyong had every right as a lessee of the premises to prevent unauthorized people from entering his domicile.

Pimentel stressed Tabayoyong’s right as a lessee prevails over the lessor of the premises.

Pimentel claimed the police and military operatives betrayed their real intention when they carried away the election materials without determining whether it was illegal to keep them.

He said the raid was "a transgression of the constitutional right of citizens to be secure in their home and to be protected from illegal searches."

In response to the controversial raid, Pimentel led a number of senators in signing a resolution calling for a congressional inquiry over the incident.

The Senate committee headed by Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. is expected to hold the hearing next week while Pimentel was asked to submit a list of names to be invited before the inquiry.

Pimentel had asked to summon the members of the CIDG raiding team, along with Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao, Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes and AFP chief of staff Gen. Generoso Senga.

The CIDG represented by Superintendent Wilben Mayor turned over the election documents to the custody of Legarda and Tabayoyong last Thursday.

Legarda said the election returns form part of the opposition’s evidence to prove massive cheating in the last year’s elections.

She added the poll documents will be presented before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to bolster her electoral protest against Vice President Noli de Castro.

The election returns were the copies provided to the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino as the dominant opposition party by the Commission on Election in the May 10, 2004 elections.

The opposition claimed they had hired Tabayoyong, a former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) handwriting expert, to analyze their copies of the election returns, which they claimed showed that massive election fraud was committed in last year’s elections.

Legarda stressed the turnover of the election documents to her is "conditional," until every election return has been checked by Tabayoyong.

Tabayoyong, on the other hand, said it would take months to check all the election materials against possible tampering.

He claimed, though, that everything seemed to be in order during his initial inspection of the election returns.