The United States government had sought the help of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to secure documents to be used in filing a case against former poll body chief Andy Bautista who is reportedly facing money-laundering and bribery charges relating to contracts for the 2016 elections.
Comelec chairman George Garcia confirmed that the US government “had coordinated and sought the assistance of the Commission on Elections.”
“In fact, they asked us for some documents and they even asked us to interview certain people from the Commission,” Garcia said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.
We gave everything that they are asking us because we want to be transparent as much as possible and this is in order for us to seek the truth,” Garcia added.
US authorities have filed the money laundering complaint against Bautista before the US District Court Southern District of Florida.
The Comelec has created a panel to investigate the allegations against Bautista, Garcia disclosed, saying he wants to probe the allegations because other poll body personnel might have been involved.
“If there is a rigged bidding, if there is that allegation, one person cannot rig a bidding by himself, and therefore there should be other individuals involved,” he said.
“So we would like to find out who are these other individuals are just in case the allegation is true. And number two, are these individuals still with the Comelec and what should be their liability in the event that the case against the former chief of the Commission would prosper in the United States,” he added.
However, Bautista denied receiving a bribe from Smartmatic which won the Comelec contracts, or from any other entity.