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Wednesday, December 07, 2005
SC junks Garci's plea to quash arrest warrant
MANILA -- The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday rejected a petition of former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano to lift the warrant of arrest issued by the House of Representatives against him.
At the same time, the high court ordered the House committees to comment in 10 days on Garcillano's second petition seeking to block the joint congressional inquiry from using the controversial "Hello Garci" tapes.
Supreme Court spokesman Ismael Khan said the high court en banc issued two resolutions in Tuesday's regular en banc session.
Khan said the SC gave due course to Garcillano's second petition which states that the House committees could not pursue its inquiry on the wiretapping case since all materials being used are illegally obtained and therefore could not be used as evidence.
Garcillano, through lawyer Eddie Tamondong, earlier asked for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the House committees to stop it from implementing the arrest warrant it issued against him last August 3.
The ex-poll commissioner filed the petition before he decided to attend the hearings to shed light on allegations he and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo talked about rigging the May 2004 presidential elections.
Branding the congressional hearing as a "political fishing expedition," Garcillano said the use of audiotapes of his alleged conversations with Arroyo by the joint committees violate the Anti-Wire Tapping Law. He said this would allow witnesses to present several versions of the wiretapped conversations that were obtained illegally.
Tamondong said the recording, based on a privileged or private communication between two individuals, was illegally made and violated the provisions of the Anti-wiretapping Law.
"Assuming that the sound recordings were genuine and authentic, he said there was still no doubt that it was obtained in gross and wanton violation of the Anti-wiretapping Law. Any committee report released by respondent committees and prepared based on such illegally acquired sound recording would likewise be in violation of the law," he added.
Garcillano also asked the court to order respondents to withdraw the P1 million reward for his arrest, which the legislators later did without being ordered by the court. The act paved the way for Garcillano's promise to appear in Wednesday's "Hello Garci" hearing at the House of Representatives. (ECV/Sunnex)
(December 7, 2005 issue)
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