House ends Hello Garci probe

After more than seven months, five committees of the House of Representatives concluded their joint inquiry into the "Hello, Garci" scandal but put on hold the release of their findings pending the submission of more documents.

North Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Talino-Santos, who heads the inquiry, declared the hearings terminated "except for some administrative matters." Panel members will deliberate and finalize the report on Feb. 15.

Malacañang heaved a sigh of relief over the conclusion of the House investigation. Officials expressed hope that the issue — which triggered President Arroyo’s worst crisis — would be finally put to rest.

But a Senate inquiry on the matter still looms.

The House inquiry was adjourned upon the motion of Nueva Ecija Rep. Aurelio Umali, although other committee members were allowed to further question elections commissioner Florentino Tuason and former colleague Virgilio Garcillano, who is at the center of the controversy.

Other officials invited to the inquiry, such as Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos and the Comelec commissioners, did not attend because of Executive Order 464, which bars government officials and military and police officers from testifying in legislative inquiries without prior clearance from the President.

Officials of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), which allegedly tapped Mrs. Arroyo’s phone conversations with Garcillano, also declined to attend.

Asked for comment on the conclusion of the House inquiry, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the people are already tired of the issue and would prefer that lawmakers pursue more urgent issues.

"We’re hoping that it’s a closed book because it’s really a distraction," Ermita told a press conference at Malacañang. "Imagine, we were towards the end of the year, we thought that it would end and then suddenly it came out again."

He added: "Anyway, the people will decide on that. The people will decide for themselves."

Ermita declined to speculate on the committee’s findings.

"Let’s await the final report of the committee in the Senate and even from the House if they have really ended the hearings," he said. "As to who would benefit from the report, let’s find out. I myself am already a bit confused."

Malacañang had earlier accused opposition lawmakers of abusing their legislative powers to undermine the Arroyo government through investigations purportedly to uncover corruption.

The House committees, according to Santos and Makati Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin, chairman of the committee on electoral reforms, will still check immigration records to verify Garcillano’s claim that he did not leave the country when he went into hiding after the scandal broke in June.

Singapore told Manila last year that Garcillano was there twice, once in July and August, after the scandal erupted.

Garcillano is suspected of helping Mrs. Arroyo cheat her way to victory in the bitterly contested 2004 presidential election.

Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos confronted Garcillano about the purported travel of Comelec commissioners to South Korea in 1996, a trip that never appeared in the passport he submitted to the chamber.

"I was not with the group," Garcillano replied.

Tuason, who heads the Comelec’s committee on overseas absentee voting, said: "I did not travel to Korea at any single instance."

Tuason, meanwhile, successfully defended questions arising from an August 2005 Comelec en banc ruling on an electoral protest case in Abra which bore Garcillano’s signature even though his term expired in June 2005 and he was then in hiding.

He told Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III that his written ruling was routed to Garcillano, who signed the resolution on May 26, 2005, when Garcillano was still with the Comelec.

But the ruling was not promulgated until three months later.

Asked about the ruling’s validity, Tuason cited a Supreme Court ruling which stated that a retired commissioner’s signature is "deemed withdrawn" but the ruling remained valid for as long as the Comelec had a quorum.

Last Monday, opposition leaders in the House threw in the towel on the inquiry after seeing its imminent demise, saying the investigation is better heard in the Senate, which will conduct a similar inquiry.

"The hearings are better heard in the Senate where the senators can ask questions more freely," House Minority Leader Francis Escudero said, explaining that senators have more liberty to grill Garcillano because, unlike the House, the Senate is not dominated by Arroyo allies.

The opposition now wants to ensure that the report on the House inquiry will be accurate and complete.

"What is important is that we have truthful and sensible findings. We also have to make sure these are definite and concrete findings," Escudero said.

Mrs. Arroyo has been locked in a protracted battle with the opposition since June after audiotapes were released publicly in which Mrs. Arroyo could allegedly be heard discussing ways to cheat in the 2004 presidential election with an official believed to be Garcillano.

She issued a televised public apology in June for her "lapse in judgment" in calling an unidentified election official. But she has denied trying to cheat and pledged to complete her six-year term in 2010.

Her apology, however, prompted 10 Cabinet members and advisers to resign and key allies — including former President Corazon Aquino and Senate President Franklin Drilon — to call for her resignation.

Mrs. Arroyo survived an impeachment bid in September but opposition groups have vowed to bring her down before her term ends in 2010.

The political crisis — the worst to hound Mrs. Arroyo since she came to power in 2001 — has sparked fresh fears of a military intervention to resolve the political impasse following the escape last week of four military officers who led a failed one-day mutiny against Mrs. Arroyo in 2003.