ON the heels of the indictment of former poll chief Andres Bautista and three employees of Smartmatic International by a US court, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday said it is looking at other individuals who could have been involved in the alleged acts of bribery and money laundering related to the 2016 polls.
In an interview, Comelec chairman George Garcia said they have started investigating the incidents surrounding the allegations thrown at Bautista and Smartmatic, the former service provider of the poll body.
“We can’t just sit and do nothing about this. We want to know if there are other people involved but were not investigated in America… including our own personnel that could be somehow responsible for this,” Garcia said.
“The Comelec also needs to do its own investigation. We want to be fair to all. That is how justice works,” he added.
He said they have begun collating pieces of evidence and documents that may be used in its probe.
“We summoned all the minutes of the meetings, the vouchers, financial documents and the contracts. Everything we have so that we can conduct a thorough review and have a fair conclusion,” said Garcia.
He, however, said Comelec officials and personnel who have already retired will no longer be included in the probe.
“For those (Comelec personnel) that are still here, we want to get their side and be clarified on what really happened back then,” he said.
Last week, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reported that three Smartmatic employees and Bautista have been indicted by a US federal grand jury in Florida for their roles in an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business in the Philippines related to the 2016 elections.
A press release published by the US DOJ said Bautista allegedly received at least $1 million in bribes from “three executives of an election voting machine and service provider company” between 2015 and 2018.
Aside from Bautista, also indicted by the grand jury were Roger Pinate, Smartmatic general manager; Elie Moreno, vice president of Smartmatic’s global services unit; and Jose Miguel Velasquez, Smartmatic vice president for external operations.
Bautista and the three Smartmatic executives were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.
Pinate and Velasquez were also charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and one substantive violation of the FCPA.
In his X account post, Bautista said: “I sense these charges were politically influenced by key Philippine officials. The voting machine company won the contract before, during and after my tenure as chairman, a role I performed during the 2016 elections with zeal and competence in service of the Filipino people.”
“I will fight for my exoneration in court and show that I have not committed any crime against the US government or the American people nor have I taken advantage or prejudiced them in any way,” Bautista said.
OFFSHORE ACCOUNTS
Meanwhile, Garcia said he is set to meet with US DOJ representatives both virtually and in person in relation to his request for assistance in finding out the real owners of offshore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands that he allegedly owns.
“We shall have this meeting regarding my request to them. It will be both online and they will also visit the Philippines,” said Garcia, adding he has already sent relevant documents and pieces of evidence to the US DOJ.
“We have forwarded to them the documents, which we believe are indeed cases of bank fraud, identity theft, and money laundering,” he said.
He said the virtual meeting with the US DOJ will take place within the week, while the agency’s representatives are likely to visit the country before the end of the month for their in-person meeting.
Garcia has earlier said he will seek the assistance of the US DOJ regarding alleged cases of identity theft and bank fraud after he was accused of owning offshore accounts by Sagip party-list Rep. Dante Marcoleta.
Garcia particularly wants to know who are behind the Jaleo Consulting LLC firm, which purportedly deposited $100 each to offshore accounts in Cayman Islands supposedly owned by the poll chief.
