Thursday, July 07, 2005
Speak out: What is the truth?
By Benjamin R. Ypil
I have been closely watching developments of the much-ballyhooed Gloria tape controversy and I`d like to share the following with the readers.
--In a TV interview with Gene Orejana, former Comelec chair Christian Monsod admitted, albeit grudgingly, that “it isn’t uncommon for candidates to call poll officials, and, yes, even Comelec commissioners to inquire into the outcome of the elections.”
If it were not for his notoriety, Garci’s conversation with President Arroyo, therefore, was not really “uncommon” between an anxious candidate and a poll official.
--Unknown to many, perhaps, President Arroyo, lost miserably in Iligan City where she grew up as a child, so too her own protégé, then reelectionist mayor Franklin Quijano, whose family roots, incidentally, are from Cebu. If Garci were an effective “dagdag-bawas” operator, how come he was unable to “protect” President Arroyo’s votes right in her own turf?
--How come Robert Barbers, a staunch and loyal partymate as the “First Gentleman” intimated to Garci, lost to Rodolfo Biazon, a recalcitrant and sometimes maverick reelectionist senator?
--By the way, where’s the “mother tape”? Is it with Sen. Panfilo Lacson, former senator Francisco Tatad, former NBI deputy director Samuel Ong, or with Erap’s counsel Allan Paguia?
Is this the same Ong who organized a blitzkrieg presscon on alleged election fraud in Cebu and paraded “volunteer witnesses” whose faces were covered by hankies and only to be unmasked by the driver of the van hired to pick up the jeepney and bus dispatchers as paid to pose as “witnesses”?
Finally, what is the truth? Can the truth be ferreted out from the “mother tape” if played in its entirety, or from the “adulterated, spliced and altered” version of Paguia?
(July 7, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
