Vote for Garci?

Arroyo's Election Fraud expert will run for the 1st district House seat in Bukidnon. From the ABS-CBN News:

Former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano confirmed Thursday his candidacy as 1st district representative of Bukidnon in the 2007 May elections, saying that he would win “without cheating.”

“I am [running as] congressman [in the] first district of Bukidnon… I have decided to run,” he said in an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN Regional Network Group.

“I want to prove to all that… I can win an election fair and square manner, not cheating,” he added.

I guess it's all systems go na after the DOJ cleared Garci of perjury and falsification of public documents, ala Ricardo Manapat.

To get to know more about the man they call Garci, read these two in-depth articles from the PCIJ:

VIRGILIO GARCILLANO: Master Operator by SHEILA S. CORONEL and The COMELEC's Fall from Grace by ALECKS P. PABICO

Related stuff here, and here.

UPDATE: Malaya editorial on what Garci's candidacy means:

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita has said if former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano runs for congressman in Bukidnon under the administration ticket as the latter says he will, then the Palace is committed to support his candidacy. For Ermita, it’s us versus them. Garcillano might be the biggest electoral thief this country has ever known, but he’s their thief and that’s all that counts.

We already know the boundless arrogance of these bastards. They bought and stole the presidency for Gloria. They buried the impeachment complaint against Gloria without a proper hearing. They cracked the skulls of people who denounced these shameless exercises of naked power. They barred wholesale the appearance of executive department officials at legislative inquiries. They even tried to impose martial law under the guise of a national emergency. They tried to change the Constitution to ensure their continued stay in power.

But do they have to rub the people’s face in the dirt by saying they could make a slimy snake run for a congressional seat and possibly make him win too?

Garcillano was the mastermind of the wholesale cooking of provincial election returns that made Gloria "win" by a million votes over Fernando Poe Jr. When subpoenaed by the House over his taped telephone conversations with Gloria Arroyo, he went into hiding, then flew to Singapore and proceeded to other parts of the world unknown. When he surfaced, he presented a forged passport before the House to buttress his claim he had been in the country all along.

This is the kind of lying low-life that Malacañang is prepared to foist over the poor Bukidnon folks as their honorable representative to the House.

But why should we be surprised? Garcillano is just being embraced back publicly by his fellow cheats, liars and thieves. Garcillano and Ermita – and, yes, Gloria - are peas from the same pod. They should be comfortable with each other’s company.