He was shot, stabbed, hacked and left for dead. But someone found him and took him to a small hospital. Later Namfrel had him transferred to Cebu's best hospital and paid his bill. He never fully recovered. Retail cheating, he calls it.
Someone just has to change the numbers on the official election returns.
Macalintal's first case, in 1984, involved this kind of fraud, he says. In Nueva Vizcaya, in northern Luzon, Carlos Padilla ran for assemblyman against Leonardo Perez, a former Comelec chairman. Padilla lost his appeal, but successfully ran in the 1987 congressional elections. Perhaps the most famous fraud charge was made by presidential hopeful Miriam Santiago in 1992. As Namfrel was counting votes from Metro Manila, the immigration commissioner was leading the favorite, Fidel Ramos.