MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will launch a separate investigation on the accusations raised by suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Zaldy Ampatuan and former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol.
Comelec Commissioner Armando Velasco told reporters in Baguio City that the poll body would want to be proactive in putting an end to the issues that have hounded the country since 2004.
Bedol, who is supposedly now in Metro Manila to reveal what he knows, had said there was massive cheating in Mindanao in 2004. Movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. should have won the elections then, not President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
He also said poll irregularities in Maguindanao in 2007 bolstered the win for Arroyo-allies, specifically now Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Ampatuan claimed no less than his father, Andal Sr., took part in the plan to rig the elections there.
Velasco stressed, however, that both Ampatuan and Bedol should maintain and support their revelations through proper documentation. - with a report from Ada Sibayan, ABS-CBN News Northern Luzon
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