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Monday, June 20, 2005
Palace respects tapes probe: Arroyo aide
MANILA -- Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Sunday that Malacañang respects the decision of the House of Representatives to investigate the wiretapping activities on the alleged phone conversation between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and an election official.
Bunye, who is also the presidential spokesman, said he will reiterate in the hearings his previous statements and will reveal what he knows about the audio recordings.
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Bunye, on June 5, revealed in his column "View From the Palace" that they got intelligence report that some members of the opposition would be releasing a recording of the President's alleged conversations with a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official, believed to be former commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, about cheating in the May 2004 presidential elections.
On June 6, Bunye presented two compact discs (CDs) containing what he said were the original and spliced version of the recordings. He claimed that Arroyo was wiretapped. He submitted the CDs to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
The CDs, he said, were delivered to his home in Alabang and brought to his office that Monday morning.
The following day, he said that the female voice in the recorded conversation could be that of Arroyo but he said he was uncertain.
Public hearing
The House committees on public information, public order and safety, defense and security, information and communication technology and suffrage last week agreed to conduct a joint public hearing on the issue.
The Senate is also planning a similar probe.
Parañaque City Representative Roilo Golez, chairman of the House committee on national defense and security, said they are sending invitations to those allegedly referred to in the tapes as well as those who made public the CDs.
Bunye advised Congress to respect Arroyo's decision to keep mum on the issue. He said Arroyo will not dignify the recorded conversations: "The President really won the past presidential elections"
Bunye also said that Malacañang would leave to the Philippine National Police the investigation on the alleged involvement of a known mistress of former president Joseph Estrada in the wiretapping controversy.
Bunye said that based on the testimony of Technical Sergeant Vidal Doble of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp), former movie actress Laarni Enriquez paid the military spy P2 million to give the tape of the conversations to former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) deputy director Samuel Ong.
National security
"The PNP is conducting investigation on the matter and whatever developments are, they would tell these to you," Bunye told the media.
He said the issue on the wiretapped conversations is "not election fraud but national security" because "it appears that the audiotapes are just being used to destabilize the Arroyo Government."
The press secretary said the text messages about declaring martial law or a state of emergency are also part of the plan to confuse the public, because the destabilizers' plan to stage a people power was foiled. (JMR/Sunnex)
(June 20, 2005 issue)
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