Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano pushed for the speedy resolution of the issue of electoral fraud saying that doing so will provide a deterrent to those planning to cheat in the future.
The senator reiterated his view that election fraud is the ‘mother of all corruption’. He emphasized that putting an end to the allegations of poll rigging and electoral return switching in the 2004 and 2007 elections by fully uncovering the truth will act as a deterrent for future ‘would be cheaters’.
“Resolving these will send a strong message to all election operators that crime does not pay,” said Cayetano adding that if elections were fair, campaign expenses wouldn’t be as high and the propensity to recover the amount spent once a politician is elected will not be the case in our political system.
Cayetano pointed out that putting closure to this issue will not only be our country’s chance to correct its history marred by the shadow of electoral fraud, but will also help resolve all the other anomalies connected to the Arroyo administration.
”Those who are involved in all the issues we are investigating now, the PNP helicopters, the Fertilizer Scam, the Hello Garci scandal, are still in the government. So if we are truly serious in resolving these cases, we need to make those involved accountable, no matter how small or big the part they played in the scam is,” he said.
Cayetano added that resolving this issue will allow the present administration to put an end to the epidemic of electoral fraud that was passed from one administration to another in the past.
“When we talk about electoral fraud, we are not only talking about the Arroyo administration. So in the interest of ending this, the government has to show that it serious and see that this investigation results in the truth coming out and those responsible held accountable,” he said.
