Where did Garci hide in Mindanao?

Where in Mindanao did former election officer Virgilio Garcillano really hide in the past five months?

This question hounds even the most well-organized military and police intelligence networks in Central Mindanao and surrounding regions.

As if taunting authorities, Garcillano even showed up for his first clandestine interviews with three reporters, after almost six months in hiding, in different places in towns near the command headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.

Also located in the vicinity of the 6th ID’s headquarters is the Central Mindanao operations center of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces.

Before flying to Manila from the Cotabato City airport last Sunday, Garcillano first met with House sergeant at arms Bayani Fabic in a seaside village in Datu Odin Sinsuat, where Fabic handed him an invitation to attend a congressional inquiry into the wiretapping controversy.

Garcillano told this writer during a clandestine interview last Nov. 27 that contrary to reports, he did not go abroad to hide after his wiretapped conversations with President Arroyo hogged the headlines.

Garcillano said he first hid in Tagaytay City and subsequently, hopped from one province to another in the South.

According to members of the Maranaw political community, Garcillano hid for some time in secluded areas in Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro City.

"But not in their family farm in Bukidnon," said a Maranaw politician, who asked not to be identified.

Talk has been circulating that Garcillano was spotted in Lanao del Sur a month after he had left Tagaytay City.

"Garcillano, as a Mindanaoan, has many friends in the region’s political community so it will not be difficult for him to hide in areas where he has friends," said another source.

There is also talk that Garcillano stayed for more than 10 days in Maguindanao for his clandestine interviews with three reporters last month.

"Maybe he decided to move around Central Mindanao after his first appearance in the media and finally showed up and met his lawyer, Eddie Tamondong, and Bayani Fabic before leaving for Manila last Sunday," said a prominent lawyer-politician.

This source cited reports that Garcillano also briefly went into hiding in island-municipalities in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

Garcillano, in a brief but emotional statement before leaving for Manila last Sunday, thanked his Muslim and Christian friends who provided him sanctuary. He did not elaborate, however.

When he met Fabic in the coastal barangay of Kusiong last Sunday, Garcillano arrived on board a white speedboat with a 250-horsepower outboard engine.

He was escorted by two hooded men, one of them brandishing an AK-47 Kalashnikov, and the other a Belgian-made FAL 7.62-mm automatic rifle with a night-vision scope. — John Unson