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Sunday, June 19, 2005
'Hello Garci' discs found in Pampanga supermarket
By Dante M. Fabian
ANGELES CITY -- A plastic shopping bag placed at the checkout counter of a supermarket yielded four compact discs (CDs) containing copies of the controversial "Hello Garci" tapes and an empty M-14 ammunition magazine Friday morning.
The "Hello Garci" tapes have gained popularity as it aroused the curiosity of millions of Filipinos on the alleged wiretapped conversation between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and erstwhile Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
The team of Chief Inspector Lorenzo B. Detran, Station 4 chief, took possession of the CDs as soon as they found this while verifying a tip that such copies of the tapes were in the supermarket.
Senior Police Officer 4 Joselito Limpin, Station 4 investigator, said the CDs were discovered at one of the baggage counters of the Johhny's Supermarket here.
He said the CDs were placed inside a plastic bag with red stripes and were wrapped in four individual brown envelopes, one of which contained the empty M-14 ammunition magazine.
Police said Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, Central Luzon police regional director, immediately ordered the turnover of the CDs to higher authorities in Camp Crame.
Limpin said a baggage counter attendant told the police he could not remember the face of the person who deposited the bag at the counter.
"I will not dignify (those behind) the CDs. Besides, we do not have the expertise (to examine the CDs) here," he said.
Limpin said police learned about the CDs through information given by former city councilor Rudy Simeon.
Simeon, who is presently the station manager of a local radio station, relayed to police the text message he received telling him of the plastic bag containing the CDs.
According to Simeon, the message sender also claimed the CDs were initially turned over by Samuel Ong, the former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) deputy director who claimed to have the "mother of all tapes" of the wiretapped recording.
Ong earlier announced that there are four copies of the recordings and he gave copies to three of his most trusted fraternal brothers.
Ong said the "master tapes" were discreetly given to him by agents of the Intelligence Section of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Ong said he also gave one of the copies to a bishop of the Catholic Church but did not identify him, and the other two people to whom he gave the three copies. (Sun.Star Pampanga/Sunnex)
(June 19, 2005 issue)
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