What happened to the ‘Hello Garci’ protagonists?

What happened to the ‘Hello Garci’ protagonists?

They have all been rewarded and chances are, they would be able to get away with it.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – For the main cast of the “Hello Garci” election scandal, life has so far been as nearly happily-ever-after as it could be. The main protagonist and beneficiary, the former president, or the disputed president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, plus her immediate family, had grown wealthier based on both their official declaration and other reports coming out about the increased family net worth and properties.

They have also held on to political power – Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is currently a Pampanga representative. She reportedly has supportive and powerful allies in congress who continue to shield her and tell critics to give her “parliamentary courtesy,” and, many suspect, she likely has influence too over the judiciary whose justices she has largely appointed. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s two sons and brother-in-law have also remained as congressmen.

Despite the lingering questions about the legitimacy of her presidency and the numerous attempts to unseat her, Arroyo went on to finish her term as the second longest sitting president. The only problem, it seemed, is the seeming continuous need for further cover-up operations of what a mutinous soldier has described as “the original sin”— her stealing the presidency in the 2004 elections.

Rotten tomatoes for a rotten president – from protesters in Iligan City in 2008.(Photo courtesy of arkibongbayan.org / bulatlat.com)

What became of the other cast of Hello Garci

The Ampatuans -Unlike the Arroyos who mainly benefited from the election rigging, life has not turned out as sweetly for some of their trusted operators in the crime. The Ampatuans, for example, who used to lord over Maguindanao and ARMM, have found themselves in jail after allegedly massacring 58 people, mostly media workers, in Ampatuan, Maguindanao on November 2009. These areas largely figured in vote-padding and vote-shaving in 2004, according to Hello Garci tapes.

Some of the Ampatuan’s are still in jail and one of them, Zaldy Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), was aired on at least three TV networks last month angling for freedom in exchange for revealing who masterminded the massacre and later on, exposed Arroyo’s election fraud..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/08/07/what-happened-to-the-hello-garci-protagonists/