Those cleared were generals Hermogenes Esperon, Roy Kyamko, Gabriel Habacon, and Francisco Gudani who were mentioned in the wiretapped “Hello Garci” conversations between a female caller – presumably then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo — and Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Virgilio “Garci” Garcillano.
But what is really strange is why did Gloria keep the report secret? It would have been a big boost to her if the report were released as soon as the Mayuga board completed it. It just doesn’t make sense at all.
And stranger as it may seem, why did it take President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III’s administration a year before declassifying and releasing the report? But before the report was declassified, he ordered his Secretary of Defense Voltaire Gazmin to review the “Mayuga Report.”
The day after P-Noy released the report, the Inquirer reported: “The Mayuga Report might have cleared the ‘Hello Garci’ generals of poll fraud in the 2004 presidential election, but Bayan Muna Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Javier Colmenares cried ‘cover-up’ after obtaining a copy of the 10-inch-thick document a day after it was declassified by the military on Tuesday.
“Casiño said the report did not reflect what was actually discovered in the testimonies of military officers and enlisted personnel and civilians directly or indirectly involved in the 2004 polls.”
Casiño was also quoted as saying: “The report was watered down to a collection of general statements and inconclusive findings. This is nothing less than a cover-up. A more detailed review of the annexes will reveal more sordid details of the [Armed Forces’] role in the 2004 election fraud.”
In another development, the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), said in its press release, “A review of the Mayuga report in the hands of the military is a dead end.” It also said: “A military or police study of it is like asking retired Major General Jovito Palparan to investigate extrajudicial killings by the military.”
Bayan Secretary General Renato M. Reyes Jr. said that it would be better if the “Mayuga Report” were reviewed by the Department of Justice, Commission on Elections, or even Congress, which then could lead to the truth.
With the brouhaha over the “Mayuga Report” snowballing into another scandal, P-Noy should nip this in the bud and take immediate action by assigning an independent panel to review the “Mayuga Report.” If he fails to act, the people will begin to suspect that there was a cover-up of the “Hello Garci” election fraud.
Mayuga reportedly once said “he would bring the results of his factfinding mission on the purported involvement of the military in the cheating in the 2004 presidential elections that enabled Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to stay in power to his grave.” Why the secrecy? There must really be some earthshaking revelations in the report. But they’re not in the 15-page summary released by P-Noy — which “exonerated” the generals — but in the voluminous transcripts that contain the testimonies of 70 resource persons, which included 68 Armed Forces personnel and two civilians. It is therefore incumbent upon P-Noy to unearth the information that Mayuga would not reveal, some of which may not even be in the report. And if this necessitates recalling the 70 resource persons to answer questions that weren’t asked of them by the Mayuga board, so be it. The truth must come out.
The last thing that P-Noy wants to see happen is for the controversy over the “Mayuga Report” to explode into a “Mayuga-gate” cover-up scandal, which could indelibly stain his administration.
