MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia disclosed Thursday an alleged ouster plot against him as issues of “bribery” in the thick of preparations for the 2025 midterm elections started to unfold.
This came after SAGIP Representative Rodante Marcoleta alleged that a Comelec official accepted bribes to favor Miru Systems, a South Korean polling technology firm, which was the sole bidder in the election commission’s procurement of new election machines.
Marcoleta did not identify the poll official, but Comelec Chairman Garcia, who believes the lawmaker was referring to him, dismissed the allegations as “baseless.”
According to Garcia, the alleged impeachment complaint would focus on accusations that he received bribes from foreign banks, including those based in South Korea.
“For everyone’s information, this is a planned operation, it’s continuous, a series, there are many of them. The next one, I’ll say, involves the individual members of the commission, my commissioners are the ones with the white paper,” Garcia said in Filipino in a radio interview.
The commissioner said he had already “decoded” the plot and said that subsequent to his situation, other members would similarly face the prospect of being subject to an impeachment complaint.
“The conclusion is, they will file impeachment against all of us. I will now say that because I have decoded all the plans mentioned to me by the group behind this,” he said.
Garcia has called on the National Bureau of Investigations to probe the allegations and said he is willing to cooperate with authorities.
In a letter sent to Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Chair Eli Remolona Jr. and AMLC Executive Director Matthew David, Garcia submitted an affidavit denying the allegations and provided a waiver granting the anti-money laundering body permission “to open and investigate” offshore bank accounts purportedly associated with him.
“These allegations claim that I have been accepting bribe money from a Korean firm and purportedly hold numerous bank accounts across various banks in Singapore, North America, China, and the Caribbean,” he said in the July 10 letter.
“I am writing to formally request the AMLC conduct a full and thorough investigation into the baseless and defamatory allegations that have been circulating against me,” he added.
On Tuesday, Marcoleta said at least P1 billion worth of funds were transferred from various banks, including those in South Korea, to 49 offshore accounts allegedly connected to a Comelec official. The transfers coincided with developments in the poll body’s automated election system procurement.
