Garci: GMA called me once

Controversial former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano admitted yesterday that President Arroyo called him once 14 days after the May 10, 2004 national elections.

"That was the only conversation I had with the President during the election period," he told five House committees inquiring into the "Hello, Garci" wiretapping scandal.

Before giving the committees his side of the controversy, Garcillano admitted that the public "may no longer believe what I will tell you later in the wake of what has happened in the past."

"I do not intend to convince the public. I do not know if they will believe me. I have already been convicted before the bar of public opinion," he said.

He said it was not only Mrs. Arroyo who talked to him by phone or met with him in connection with last year’s combined presidential, congressional and local elections. He named seven senators, and scores of incumbent and former House members, as among those who spoke with him.

The senators he named were Juan Ponce Enrile, Jamby Madrigal, Alfredo Lim, Richard Gordon, Mar Roxas and Panfilo Lacson, and former senator Loren Legarda, a vice presidential candidate in the elections.

Answering questions from Minority Leader Francis Escudero and San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, Garcillano said Mrs. Arroyo called on May 24 to ask why her margin of one million votes over the late Fernando Poe Jr. had fallen to 892,000.

He denied the President asked him whether she would still lead by more than a million votes, and that his alleged answer was, "Pipilitin ho natin ma’am (We will try ma’am)." This comment was part of their supposed conversation heard on the "Garci" recordings.

Garcillano did not say, nor was he asked, why, of all the members of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), it was he whom the President phoned. It was also unclear on what source Mrs. Arroyo based her information that she had been leading by one million votes, a figure later reduced by more than 100,000.

At the time she called, the Senate and the House, as the canvassing board for votes for president and vice president, were just about to start their count. The two chambers began their canvassing on May 25. What the Comelec counted were the votes for senatorial candidates.

Escudero also asked the former Comelec commissioner about the June 27 televised "I’m sorry" admission of Mrs. Arroyo in which she admitted to talking to an election official "to protect my votes," though she did not identify which official.

After admitting just minutes earlier that the President had called him on May 24, Garcillano denied he was the "election official" Mrs. Arroyo referred to in her "I’m sorry" televised admission.

"Does that mean that the President talked to another Comelec official in addition to you?" Escudero wanted to know.

"I cannot answer that. It is the President who can answer that. You have to ask her," the witness responded in a somewhat arrogant tone.

Malacañang, on the other hand, said the congressional hearings would play out and lawmakers can satisfy themselves with grilling Garcillano since that is what they wanted anyway.

"Let things happen the way they are unfolding right now. Everyone is watching the television anyway. The same answers, the same questions you will hear," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said. "There is nothing much to say about it now... Let us just listen."

Answering another question from the minority leader, Garcillano declared, "Hindi ko kilala si Garci (I do not know Garci)."

But he later admitted that his close friends "jokingly call me Garci."

Responding to Zamora, the former election official said the 14 other supposed conversations on the "Garci" recordings between him and Mrs. Arroyo "are spliced, edited and corrected."

He said he was not sure whether or not his voice is heard on the tapes.

This assertion differed with the categorical statement made by his lawyer, Eddie Tamondong, on Monday that his client is not the person heard on the recordings speaking to several personalities, including a female caller who sounds like Mrs. Arroyo.

Besides, Garcillano said, the tapes were "wiretapped" and obtained in violation of Republic Act 4200, or the Anti-Wiretapping Law.

"I am a victim here. The law protects me," he declared.

Zamora said he found the former commissioner’s statements that he was not sure if he was the one heard on the recordings and that he was a victim of illegal wiretapping to be contradictory.

"If you are a victim and you are invoking the Anti-Wiretapping Law, then you are a participant in the conversations, and it is your voice that’s on those tapes," he said.

"I’m not saying that, your honor," Garcillano told a confused Zamora.

The witness refused to answer other questions about the "Hello, Garci" tapes, including those raised by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman.

At one point, Lagman, supported by Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, threatened to move to cite Garcillano for contempt after his refusal to answer, but Lagman subsequently relented.

Escudero is one of 23 House members the former election official has claimed he spoke with "personally or by phone" during last year’s election period.

The others are Clavel Martinez, Alan Peter Cayetano, Benasing Macarambon Jr., Rafael Nantes, Danilo Suarez, Noli Fuentebella, Narciso Bravo, Amelita Villarosa, Suharto Mangudadato, Federico Sandoval, Anthony Miranda, Roilo Golez, Eduardo Zialcita, Lorna Silverio, Peter Paul Jed Falcon, Munir Arbison, Ernesto Clarete, Danilo Lagbas, Jurdin Jesus Romualdo and Linette Punzalan.

He named the "other political personalities" he allegedly spoke with as Liwayway Vinzons Chato, former congressmen Nur Jaafar, Pacifico Agabao and Romeo Candazo, an ex-congressman Falcon, a Mayor Eusebio, a Governor Verceles, ex-governor Sakur Tan, an ex-congressman Jakiri, and a certain Carlos of Bulacan.

There were many more callers, Garcillano said, whose identities he could not remember.

After ticking off the names, Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. asked the witness whether he and those who called or met with him had discussed anything illegal or improper like vote padding.

"I refuse to answer that question, your honor. It is better that those politicians explain their conversations with me," the former official said.

"Well, that means some of those calls were improper," Locsin commented.

Garcillano also insisted that he did not leave the country during the five months that he was in hiding, contrary to a certification by the Singaporean embassy and the findings of the Department of Justice that he left for Singapore onboard a Subic Air chartered executive jet on July 14.

"I was just around Mindanao and Luzon," he stated. He claimed he did not know that the five committees were looking for him, though he revealed in television interviews two weeks ago that a relative supplied him with newspapers daily to keep him abreast of developments.

The hearing committees decided to ask the former commissioner to surrender his passport or give them a copy to check whether he indeed left the country or not.

"I have not seen my passport for some time. I hope I can find it," Garcillano said.

But Singapore stood by its earlier statement that Garcillano entered the city-state in July despite his insistence that he was in the Philippines all along.

A Singaporean diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday Garcillano arrived in Singapore last July 14 and left the next day.

He said the foreign ministry of Singapore transmitted a note verbale to the Philippine embassy there in response to the Philippine government’s request to confirm whether Garcillano entered the city-state.

Before the witness addressed the committees, Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas pleaded with his colleagues to treat the former official with respect and fairness.

But Escudero told his colleague that it was Garcillano who has been unfair to the House by not responding to its previous repeated invitations and subpoenas.

There was also a heated exchange between Escudero and Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino, who proposed that the minority leader and other House members the former commissioner named as among those he talked to should be required to submit affidavits explaining their conversations.

"We will do that if President Arroyo is also required to submit a sworn statement," said Escudero, who denied seeking Garcillano’s help about the senatorial candidacy of his father in last year’s elections.

"Why are you being selective?" the opposition leader asked Antonino, an Arroyo ally.

Cooler heads prevailed, prompting Antonino to withdraw his proposal.

In the course of his testimony, the former election official claimed he was never a participant in election cheating, though he admitted that he has always been suspected of being involved in vote shaving and padding.

"I do not have any experience (in) cheating in my 35 years in the Comelec. Walang nandadaya sa Comelec. Ang mga kandidato ang nandadaya (There are no cheats in the Comelec. It is the candidates who cheat)," he said.

The House treated Garcillano as a very important visitor, reserving the large north lounge of the Batasan building, usually used for hearings, for him and his huge entourage of lawyers, aides and police bodyguards.

The chamber took heavy security precautions, including padlocking journalists’ access to the session hall, where the hearing was conducted.

The witness arrived at the House amid a convoy of at least 10 private and police cars. — With Aurea Calica Pia Lee-Brago