Republic of the Philippines HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Quezon City FIFTEENTH CONGRESS Second Regular Session HOUSE RESOLUTION No.

1642 ________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCED by Rep. TEDDY A. CASIO and NERI JAVIER COLMENARES ________________________________________________________________ RESOLUTION DIRECTING THE COMMITTEE ON SUFFRAGE AND ELECTORAL REFORMS, IN EXERCISE OF ITS OVERSIGHT FUNCTION AND IN AID OF LEGISLATION, TO IMMEDIATELY CONDUCT AN INQUIRY INTO THE ALLEGED BREAK-IN AT THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND SWITCHING OF ELECTION RETURNS PERPETRATED BY ELEMENTS OF THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE IN 2005 PURPORTEDLY TO ENSURE THE 2004 ELECTION VICTORY OF THEN PRES. GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO WHEREAS, doubts continue to linger about the 2004 presidential election victory of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo involving her 1.1 million vote lead over her closest rival and late actor Fernando K. Poe, Jr. The latest developments on the controversial and allegedly fraud-ridden 2004 polls now has new witnesses who have surfaced, giving the Filipino people an opportunity to ferret out the truth in the interest of attaining justice; WHEREAS, Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago and his men have come out with evidence of the purported fraud in the 2004 presidential elections. His PNP-SAF team was supposedly involved in a January-February 2005 operation where fake statements of votes (SOVs) and certificates of canvass (CoCs) were allegedly fabricated and switched with genuine documents that were kept at the House South Wing lobby in anticipation of Poes election protest; WHEREAS, per Santiagos reckoning, the 6,000 ERs they switched reflected votes from Mindanao and were the subject of an election protest filed by Poe. Mrs. Arroyo's camp supposedly wanted the original documents replaced by fake ones so that if a recount is conducted, Mrs. Arroyo will still have a 1.1 million lead over Poe; WHEREAS, SSupt. Santiago said that his superior, then SAF head Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco and then PNP director general Hermogenes Ebdane, were under orders to switch original election returns with fakes ones manufactured by the father-and-son team Roque and Ruel (El) Bello. The purpose, he had said, was to ensure that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would emerge the winner in the 2004 presidential election in the event of a recount;

WHEREAS, according to Santiago, his men have kept copies of the original election returns stolen from ballot boxes kept at the House, aside from testimonial evidence. Santiagos group has so far been able to return 38 ERs from Misamis Occidental, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan to the Department of Justice; WHEREAS, these series of incidents attest to the intricate system of election fraud that marked the 2004 elections from the President down to the party-list system; WHEREAS, it is high time that the House conduct its own probe on the break-in as this criminal offense is not only an affront to Congress, but more importantly, a heinous attack on the integrity of the electoral process as well; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, in exercise of its oversight function and in aid of legislation, immediately conduct an inquiry into the alleged break-in at the House of Representatives and switching of election returns perpetrated by elements of the Philippine National Police in 2005 purportedly to ensure the 2004 election victory of then Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Adopted, TEDDY A. CASIO Bayan Muna Party-list NERI JAVIER COLMENARES Bayan Muna Party-list