By Zaff Solmerin

MARINE Col. Ariel Querubin yesterday confirmed that then presidential candidate Gloria Macapapagal-Arroyo and her military allies had used the Philippine Marines in the controversial 2004 election fraud.


In an interview at his quarters inside Camp Aguinaldo, a day after his released from detention through “provisional liberty”, the officer said he has some pieces of information regarding the election cheating that participated by Marine soldiers and officers in some parts in Mindanao.

Although he said he did not witness a single incident where soldiers involved in the cheating.

Then superintendent of the Marine Training Center based in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, Querubin recalled that a US serviceman, a lieutenant, and escorts reported to him about incidents of ballot snatchings in Tawi-Tawi days before the elections.

“He told me ‘sir, we really don’t support corrupt military’. I was shocked, we’re Marines and for the first time we’re used in an election fraud,” he said.

Querubin said the US serviceman was sent to him by then Task Force commander Captain Feliciano Angue to report about the involvement of election cheating of some Marine officers and soldiers in Tawi-Tawi.

Rear Admiral Angue is currently the commanding general of the National Capital Regional Command (NCRCOM).

“The officer and his men were sent to me Admiral Angue. The American officer told me ‘sir, I’m here to inform you about what happened in Tawi-Tawi. There were ballot snatchings’. I asked him who were the perpetrators and he answered they were men in Marine uniforms. I told him you know our uniforms are available commercially. But he insisted to me saying ‘sir, we know them because we are working with them,” Querubin said.

He said the snatching happened in Lamion pier in Bonggao town perpetrated by Marine units.

Querubin said he informed then Captain Alexander Pama, commander of the Naval Intelligence Security Force (NISF), about the presence of the American officer and his men followed protocols.

Rear Admiral Pama is now chief of the Naval Forces-Western Mindanao and concurrent commander of Task Force Trillium.

“So what they did was they summoned the Americans and ordered them to immediately go back to their base,” Querubin said.

Angue himself was among 70 officers summoned to appear before the five-man panel Mayuga Board, then chaired by retired Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga, to testify in the investigation. He also submitted his own affidavit.

Querubin said it would be up now for Angue if he will come forward to testify before the Truth Commission that was formed by President Benigno Aquino III to re-investigate the controversy.

The Mayuga report absolved the “Garci generals” from involvement in the election fraud. They were retired generals Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Roy Kyamco, Gabriel Habacon and Francisco Gudani.

For his part, Marine Commandant Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban said he will abide to orders by his commander-in-chief if he will be instructed to produce before the commission the Marine officers and soldiers involved in the election fraud and who were still in the active service.

“Since it’s (commission) a creation of the President, our commander-in-chief, then they are obliged to appear before the commission,” he said.

Sabban assured the commission that those uniformed men involved in the fraud will tell the truth.

“If they want the truth, the Marines will give them the truth,” he said.

Earlier, former Scout Ranger Regiment (SRR) commander Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim argued Aquino to re-investigate the controversy and get into the real bottom of the testimonies of the witnesses which he said had altered by the Mayuga report because of the political situation at that time.

Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr., AFP spokesman, said they will not block any re-investigation and will fully support Aquino’s position to bare in public the content of the Mayuga report.