Looking for Louie « The PCIJ Blog

HE PCIJ has been tracking down Michaelangelo “Louie” Zuce since mid-June this year, when two sources, a Moro politician based in Mindanao and a former Commission on Elections (Comelec) employee in Manila, told us to look for a nephew of the controversial Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

The nephew, we were told, was “Garci’s” connection to Malacañang, because he worked in the political office there. We were told to hunt down “Louie” because he was a mother lode of information on election fraud in Mindanao.

Louie, they said, was Garcillano’s bagman and trusted operator. The Comelec commissioner, our sources said, sent his nephew to Mindanao to monitor fraud operations there, together with Renault Macarambon, a Mindanaoan lawyer detailed at Garcillano’s office. (Louie and Macarambon are there. I’ll have them guard it).”

Special elections were held in seven towns in Lanao del Sur on May 22, and it was likely the results of this voting that the two Comelec officials were referring to. In a May 29 conversation with the President, Garcillano also said that he was expecting more votes for her to come from Lanao del Sur.

In the conversation with Icaro, Garcillano also talked about the count in Cotabato City, where the canvassing was delayed and eventually moved to Manila. Garcillano relayed the news that the President was losing in the count by about 40,000 votes. He subsequently had a similar conversation with the President, also on May 29, assuring her that her losing margin will not exceed 40,000.  “ Pero hindi ho siguro sosobra ng 40, ma’am.”