Cheats, Inc.

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Cheats, Inc.
Sunday, 02 19, 2006

Newsbreak detailed the cheating operations in the substitution of the election returns (ERs) at the Batasan grounds. Ducky Paredes quoted in his Malaya column the thrilling part of the story. These articles, however compelling, did not contain the relevant photographs — the hard, physical evidence that would substantiate the narrative.

Now, my pigeonhole at The Daily Tribune suddenly has countless photographs of claimed video clips of the entire operations from somewhere in Parañaque City and other places in Metro Manila up to the Batasan grounds, a number of them already endlessly scrutinized as I prepare this article. Why the photographs showing the cheating, step-by-step, got to me a day after the lawyers of Loren Legarda filed with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) a motion to lay bare the truth about the substitution of ERs for the May 2004 elections, is the heartwarming part: The Holy Spirit has truly touched one kind soul — probably more — for truth and for the good of the country. And there is also the scary part, as my fellow lawyers have cautioned me about, but which has been adequately addressed.

I get the message: Because I lawyer for Loren before the PET, the sender is egging me to now use the photographs to prove substitution, now that the ERs we are going over at the PET suddenly jive with the statements of votes by precinct (SOVs) and eventually, the certificates of canvass (COCs).

Now, what story does the photographs tell? Very much different from the Newsbreak and Malaya articles. The photographs give life to the accompanying narrative.

Recall that during the canvass, the National Board of Canvassers simply “noted” the cries of the lawyers of Fernando Poe Jr. and Loren for the opening of the ballot boxes containing the ERs. That is how dead-sure the lawyers were, that once the ERs are compared to the SOVs and the COCs, the “tandem fraud” committed against their clients would be exposed.

Soon after FPJ and Loren filed their respective protests before the PET and identified their pilot areas, meaning, those provinces and cities which show all too clearly, without a doubt, the dagdag-bawas operations perpetrated against them, the operators went to work. Their work: prepare the ERs that they would substitute for those already impounded at the Batasan grounds.

So, how did the cheats do it?

Using official paper from the Commission on Elections, they borrowed the machine that printed the ERs. They also borrowed a numbering machine, a Heidelberg, much later on. The printing of the ERs was done somewhere in Parañaque. The numbering of the accomplished ERs was done somewhere in Cainta. They assembled an army of “golden hands” somewhere in Banawe to accomplish the ERs. They also had an army of pianistas for the obligatory thumbmarks to make the ERs authentic. With the ERs accomplished, four clandestine entries were made into the Batasan grounds sometime in January and February 2005.

It is not surprising then that an apologist of the Cheats, Inc. now dares Loren, in these words: “There was no cheating! Let us go to the ERs.” Such bravado, for he knows what the ballot boxes at the Batasan now contain.

The photographs show a printing machine with ERs ready for feeding and printing; the printing of the ERs; an army of cheats accomplishing the ERs; the cheats collating the accomplished ERs; the ERs being placed inside brown envelopes; the pianistas doing their work; a vehicle traceable to somebody used to transport the accomplished ERs; how the ERs were numbered; a taxi owned by the operator (showing its plate number), to where the ERs were being loaded; the accomplished ERs before they were assigned serial numbers; the substitution of the contents of the ballot boxes at the Batasan; etcetera. The annotation in one clip reads as follows: “Printing of the serial numbers of the ERs should have been done first and the data thereafter, but because of limited time and unavailability of the right numbering machine (Leibinger, with “unsinkable zero,” Germany), the “revised data” (dagdag-bawas) were placed in the fake ERs by the golden arms and pianistas, while the operators were sourcing the right numbering machine. This being the case, a remedial measure was undertaken on the subject ERs as shown and described below.

When the right numbering machine became available in December 2004, these ERs were brought to the printing press for the printing of the serial numbers.” In six photographs, the sequence of acts leading to the printing of the numbers are vividly portrayed. There was even a familiar face in the background in one photograph showing him visibly elated over the accomplished ERs. That same familiar face showed up in another photograph, this time supervising the substitution at the Batasan.

As if to dare me furthermore, the sender sent this accompanying note: “Get in touch with abogado, who was in Newsbreak. He is ready to cooperate.”

The photographs are admissible pieces of evidence, provided they are authenticated by the sender who, presumably, operated the camera used to take the video clips. The video clips are claimed to be contained in digital format, including the corresponding dates when they were taken, which are visible in the photographs.

Now, if only the sender could send me his/her affidavit to authenticate the photographs of the substitution of ERs, and another kind soul shows me as well photographs of how they cheated in Cebu City with the ballots this time, all hell could break loose in time for the celebration of Edsa I.

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