Learn from mistake of 2007 election fraud

“MIGZ to Koko: Let bygones be bygones.” (Inquirer, 4/26/12) If you were Koko Pimentel, would you?

Migz Zubiri deprived Pimentel four years of his six-year Senate term. It was Pimentel who was elected to serve that term, thus Zubiri deprived the electorate of the rightful representative they voted for.

Zubiri even said that resigning as a senator was “the proudest moment of his life.” But he had to resign to save face.

It takes one’s credibility to accept hook, line and sinker Zubiri’s claim that “it was not his fault that he was one of the ‘unwitting beneficiaries”’ of the 2007 election fraud in Mindanao. Like Pilate washing his hands (pardon the comparison), he said, “Those who did it are now in jail. Let us move on from that. Let us learn from that mistake of dirty elections of 2007 and continue to push for clean and honest elections for 2013.”

But Zubiri was very much part of that “dirty elections of 2007.” If the cheating was not exposed on time, he would have completed “his senatorial term.”

While former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Comelec officer Lintang Bedol are languishing in jail for the unbailable offense that had Zubiri as a “unwitting beneficiary,” Zubiri is scot-free and raring for another try in the 2013 senatorial elections. This certainly is one of the ironies of life.

Like Peter denying knowing Jesus, (again, pardon the comparison), Zubiri is denying he knew of Arroyo et al.’s sordid attempt to make him and others win in “the 2007 dirty elections.” Unlike Peter, he was not sorry at all.

Knowing the full story of the Pimentel-Zubiri electoral contest, as well as the fight against the formidable odds in a seemingly hopeless case to prove who really won the election; and knowing too that were it not for an unexpected “Divine Justice” Zubiri would still be in the Senate, would you just let bygones be bygones without justice being fully served?

—RUTH E. ISLA

Pasig City