This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 13, May 10, 2006
BY
Posted 2:55 p.m. May
10, 2006 The Citizens’
Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA) will file electoral fraud
charges against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before the United
Nations (UN) International Human Rights Committee under the Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, Neri Javier Colmenares, one of the group’s
lawyers-presentors, told media earlier today. The CCTA, in its report
presented this morning at the Club Filipino, found Arroyo guilty of electoral
fraud among other offenses including corruption, betrayal of public trust, and
culpable violation of the Constitution. Among the charges against
Arroyo were inaction to political killings perpetrated by state forces,
diversion of funds, engaging in questionable contracts like the Venable deal and
the NorthRail project. The report said that Arroyo
“deliberately cheated” her way to victory in the 2004 presidential election. “The cheating was a
violation of civil and political rights,” said former Vice President Teofisto
Guingona Jr., chairman of the CCTA Presidium. Guingona said that the contents of
the 203-page report are serious enough to be used as bases for filing a case
before the UN rights body. The CCTA was initiated by
non-government and people’s organizations and opposition parties in 2005 after
impeachment complaints against Arroyo were dismissed at the House of
Representatives. Colmenares, who is also the
spokesperson of the broad-based Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL),
said that the CCTA will be filing the charges together with individual
petitioners. He added that they will gather as many petitioners as possible. “In electoral fraud we are
all injured parties,” Colmenares said. “So anyone can be a petitioner in this
case.” Guingona also said that the
results of the CCTA proceedings can be used as support documents for the second
impeachment complaint against Arroyo. Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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