MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) - A Pasay City court on Monday has cleared former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. of two counts of electoral sabotage in connection with the alleged rigging of poll results in 2007 in North Cotabato.
Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 112 exonerated Abalos after the prosecution failed to prove that the former Comelec chief conspired to rig the results of the elections in favor of the senatorial bets of the administration's Team Unity.
During the hearing of the poll case, prosecutors presented to the cout former election officer Yogie Martirizar who implicated Abalos to the rigging of the poll results.
The Pasay City RTC Branch 117 had also acquitted Abalos of electoral sabotage.
Abalos resigned as Comelec chairman in 2007 after he was dragged into the anomalous NBN-ZTE deal. with Patricia Lourdes Viray
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