Malacañang on Saturday insisted the granting of bail to former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. does not mean the electoral fraud cases against him are crumbling.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the granting of bail petitions by the courts to Abalos and to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was not yet a judgment on the merits of the main case.

“It’s only a petition for bail. The decision to grant bail is not a judgment on the merits,” she said on government-run dzRB radio.

Also she said the Comelec will be in the best position to tell the public how strong its case is.

On Friday, a Pasay City court allowed Abalos to post P1 million in bail – P500,000 for two counts of electoral sabotage.

Last June, a separate Pasay court allowed Abalos to post bail for charges of electoral fraud.

The former poll body chief on Friday afternoon left the Southern Police District in Taguig City, where he had been detained for the past eight months.

On the other hand, the Pasay City court last July allowed Arroyo, now a House of Representatives member representing Pampanga's second legislative district, to post a P1-million bail on charges of electoral sabotage.

The former leader left the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City July 25, ending her detention that lasted also for eight months. — LBG, GMA News