NR0608:Poll fraud, not wire-tapping the main issue

Mula sa Tanggapan ni Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran
News Release June 8, 2005
House of Representatives, South Wing Rm 602
931-6615 Ina Alleco R. Silverio,Chief of Staff
Email: paggawa@edsamail.com.ph, anakpawis2003@yahoo.com
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PNP should go to Malacanang to seek the source of destabilization; wire-tapping not the main issue, massive electoral fraud is - Rep. Beltran

Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran today scoffed at the Philippine National Police's (PNP) strong words regarding its supposed preparedness to defend the Macapagal-Arroyo administration against any and all forces plotting against it.

"The PNP led by Director General Arturo Lomibao is trying to score some brownie points by saying that they're capable of stopping all destabilization plots against the government. What's there to nip in the bud? It 's President Arroyo and her family who are the cause of the worsening political turbulence. Every time the Arroyo administration bungles, its allies and henchmen in the police and military all try to outdo each other in crying 'destabilization.' They've done it so often it's already become tiresome. This administration is self-destructing, disassembling from within. Morale, without doubt, is quite low within the administration," he said.

The veteran labor leader turned lawmaker said that Lomibao and the PNP's loyalty should not be to the president but to the Filipino people and the country. "The PNP is projecting itself as a hard-core, pro-GMA institution ready to defend it to the death. The rank-and-file if not the leadership of the PNP should begin getting it into their heads that this administration is committing various crimes against the citizenry. Pres. Arroyo herself is now even being accused of rigging the May 2004 polls and directing the cheating tactics herself," he said.

In the meantime, Beltran said that the outrage of certain quarters over the supposed wire-tapping of President Arroyo's calls is a tactic being used by Malacanang to divert the issue of the President being exposed as manipulating first-hand the results of the May 2004 elections.

"The uproar over wire-tapping should not be allowed to cover the real issue, that of the president's controversial conversation that was caught on tape. The contents are a dead give-away that there was massive electoral fraud in 2004, and the President was at the helm of it. Who surrendered the tape to Malacanang, anyways? The palace must already know who is behind it. How the conversation was taped is also an interesting story the public needs to know," he said.

"Wire-tapping is one of the recommendations of Malacanang allies in Congress to supposedly counter terrorism and there's a provision for its legalization in the anti-terror bill being cooked in Congress. Now that it's coming out that the president's own calls were tapped, will her allies still push for the legalization of wire-tapping? Her conversations with her allies and underlings are more interesting and controversial than the calls of ordinary citizens," he said. #