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Saturday, July 16, 2005
Estradas dismiss tape
Sens. Luisa “Loi” and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada will relinquish their posts as lawmakers, if Malacañang can prove that former President Joseph Estrada had ordered an assassination plot against President Arroyo and former president Fidel Ramos.
Loi branded Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson’s release of an audiotape — in which Estrada allegedly discusses a plan to kill Arroyo and Ramos — as a “desperate attempt to divert the attention of the people from the electoral fraud committed by Arroyo in the 2004 presidential elections.”
Jinggoy supports his mother’s position.
“The CD released by Singson is a tactic to divert the attention of the people from the controversy over the taped conversations between Arroyo and former Commission on Elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano,” he said.
As for Ramos, his response to an alleged plot against his life was, “Let them try!”
“Go ahead and try, but please do not do anything violent or injurious to the President of the Philippines and many persons in authority whether pro or against (government), because that is not the way to solve problems,” said 77-year-old retired general, who arrived in Manila yesterday from a five-day trip to Bangkok.
Probe
For its part, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines called for an investigation of the tape being used against Estrada.
“We are not judging the contents of the tape but we believe that it should be looked into, in the same way they are investigating the `Hello Garci’ tape,” said the group’s president, Rene Soriano, in a press conference.
The “Hello Garci” tape allegedly revealed a scheme to rig the presidential elections last year.
In Malacañang, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said it is up to Congress if they want to look into the source and content of the tape, similar to the ongoing House investigation on the audiotapes of Arroyo’s chat with Garcillano.
However, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Singson can be sued for possession of a recording of an alleged wiretapped conversation between Estrada and his former Armed Forces chief of staff Joselin Nazareno.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, for his part, said if the tape presented by Singson Thursday confirmed anything, it is that Malacañang was behind the wiretapping of personalities in the May 2004 elections.
Like lawyer Alan Paguia, who came out with the “Hello Garci” tapes, Gonzalez said mere possession of wiretapped material is also in violation of Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law.
However, the Department of Justice will not be so quick in filing charges against Singson.
“We’ll wait first. We’ll study that. When the time comes, if he (Chavit) has a second tape, let him come out with it,” he said.
Asked if it’s true that Singson was in Malacañang to inform Arroyo about the tape hours before he released the material in a press conference Thursday, Bunye said he learned about the existence of the tape “a few minutes before the actual press conference.”
Lacson, however, said he hasn’t talked to Estrada since last year and that one tape track of the supposed conversation appeared to be spliced.
He pointed out that the conversations suddenly shifted from the 2004 elections to a destabilization plot that supposedly involved killing President Arroyo.
Lacson said the splicing was crude since there were gaps between the voices and no overlaps that would have indicated spontaneous conversation. “Napaka-engot ng nag-splice (Whoever did the splicing was stupid),” he said.
Lacson also said there was no sense for the opposition to plot a destabilization, especially while the counting of votes was still going on. (Sunnex/PNA)
(July 16, 2005 issue)
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