Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos, Resigned!

Weeeee!!! sa wakas nag Resign na rin si Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos. Mabuti naman at nahiya talaga siya... at nag Resign nga! Alam naman natin kung anong tao si Abalos... dati nung panahon ng Election may binitawan siyang salita na magbibigay siya ng pera sa bawat barangay na papanalunin sa Election ang buong slate ng Administration. naging Isyo yun at ngayon nga tinamaan talaga siya at nag resign dahil di na siguro niya makayanan ang kahihiyan na maidulot niya sa Office ng Commission on Election.

Abalos resigns

INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines -- Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos has resigned amid allegations of bribery over the national broadband network project of the government.

Abalos announced his resignation Monday even before an impeachment complaint filed against him last week at the House of Representatives could prosper.

Businessman Jose de Venecia III, son of Speaker Jose de Venecia, blew the whistle on Abalos in a Senate investigation into the NBN project which the Comelec chief allegedly brokered for the ZTE Corporation of China.

The young De Venecia himself and his company, the Amsterdam Holdings Inc., had expressed interest in the project but the Speaker's son alleged that Abalos had offered him $10 million to drop his bid.

Abalos has denied the allegations before the Senate.

Resign now, save Comelec credibility

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 11:34am (Mla time) 09/03/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- For his alleged involvement in the controversial multibillion-peso loan from China’s ZTE Corp, Chairman Benjamin Abalos of the Commission on Elections should resign and save the poll body from suffering further, Senate Minority Floor Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said Monday.

“Chairman Abalos should resign as the only honorable way for a constitutional official like him who has committed all these shameful acts. He should not pretend to be a dumb who does not know the institutional damage he has been causing to the Comelec. It’s time for him to go,” he said.

Abalos had admitted to being friends and golfing partners with the owners and executives of the ZTE Corp., but denied brokering for the deal.

Pimentel said proof of Abalos’ wrongdoing came from his own admission that his trips to China were paid for by the ZTE officials and that he had arranged their meeting with Finance Secretary Margarito Teves to discuss the national broadband network project proposal of the telecommunications firm.

Pimentel discounted the possibility of impeaching Abalos -- “not for insufficient grounds but for lack of support from the pro-administration-dominated House of Representatives," so he reiterated his call for the poll chief's resignation.

He said the continued stay of Abalos as head of the Comelec has become untenable and bereft of any moral ground in the wake of his latest indiscretion.

“The problem with Abalos is that he is behaving as if he does not know -- or he is simply impervious -- to the damaging implications of his scandalous actions,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel listed down what he considered were the impeachable offenses committed by Abalos:

• failure to prevent the massive fraud that marred the 2004 presidential election as shown in the wiretapping scandal;
• involvement in the anomalous P1.3 billion poll computerization contract with MegaPacific which was voided by the Supreme Court; and
• complicity in the wholesale cheating and fabrication of the senatorial results in Maguindanao province and other areas in the 2007 elections.