GMA, Garcillano caught on tape - US voice experts

From the Daily Tribune:

It’s Gloria, Garci caught on tape—US voice experts

By Gerry Baldo and Jun P. Yap
Tuesday, 06 14, 2005

Serving as corroborating evidence to an earlier finding of an Australian voice analyzing expert that the voices on the incriminating “Gloriagate” tapes are those of President Arroyo and her election official, Comission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, is yet another finding from an independent American-based company that is into voice analysis, recognition and identification, which confirmed that the voices heard on the unaltered and unedited tapes were conclusively identified as the President's and Garcillano's.

This was disclosed yesterday by former Sen. Francisco Tatad.

“In response to our request for a voice analysis of the controversial Arroyo-Garcillano tape, we have received two reports from Voice Identification Inc. (VII) in New Jersey, positively identifying Arroyo's and Garcillano's voices on the tape,” Tatad said.

The report on Mrs. Arroyo is dated June 3, 2005, while that on Garcillano's is dated June 9.

Through critical listening and spectrographic prints, the certified analysts at VII were able to determine that the conversations appeared “contiguous and unaltered,” and “legitimate reproductions of original telephone calls,” Tatad pointed out.

The report was signed by VII President Ernst F. W. “Rix” Alexanderson, and notarized by Mary Carol Niezgoda, a notary public in the State of New Jersey.

Alexanderson is a certified voiceprint examiner, with extensive training and experience in voice identification, including analysis and transcription services involving tape recordings of voices, training of law enforcement personnel in the techniques of voice identification. He has personally analyzed some 250 cases involving voiceprint comparison, and trained approximately 100 law enforcement personnel in voice identification techniques.

The VII explained its procedure as follows:

“A voiceprint analysis is comprised of an aural (listening) portion and a spectrographic portion. The spectrographic portion involves the visual comparison of the patterns produced by the speech sounds from the known and the questioned speaker. These patterns are produced on paper by an instrument called a sound spectrograph and represent a three dimensional display of the speech sounds present in the examine voice.

“The pattern matching is done by two certified voice analysts working independently. Words chosen for comparison must be common to both the questioned and known recording, spoken in a similar manner, contain a sufficient frequency response, and have a sufficient enough signal to noise ratio that the patterns are not obscured.

“An aural comparison involves critical listening by the examiners who seek to determine whether the sounds of the voices are similar or different. Characteristics such as pitch, pronunciation, accent, rate of speech, breathing patterns and speech impediments are used by the examiner in arriving at a decision on the aural comparison. The aural examination should support the spectrographic analysis.”

It was pointed out by the experts at Vll Voice Identification, Inc. that “Segment #14 from Track 22 of the CD-R produced the most comparable speech sample of the questioned female. An aural comparison to the cassette recording of Macapagal-Arroyo indicated a strong similarity to the sounds of the voices, suggesting it was the same speaker,” the report on Arroyo said.

The report on Garcillano found “reasonable matches between the known and the questioned 'Gary',” despite the fact that there were few samples of good quality for a voiceprint comparison.

“Our aural comparison indicated a similarity in the voices. Of particular interest to us was the “s” sounds, in which both known and unknown “Gary” spoke with a lisp (a speech impediment),” the report said.

During a press forum held at the Manila Hotel yesterday, Tatad also disclosed that Mrs. Arroyo and Garcillano are talking about ways of cheating in the last 2004 presidential elections, particularly in Mindanao.

“In response to our request for a voice analysis of the controversial Arroyo-Garcillano tape, we have received two reports from the New Jersey-based Voice Identification, Incorporated (VII), positively identifying Arroyo's and Garcillano's voices on tape,” Tatad said.

When asked when he had obtained a copy of the controversial tapes, Tatad said his group was able to secure one even before the issue was divulged to the media by presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye. He, however, refused to reveal the origin of the tapes.

In a related development, Tatad also disclosed that he started to notice that his communication lines appears to have been tapped, saying that other members of the opposition are now apparently being monitored closely by government authorities.

Authorities were quick to criticize Tatad for bringing that matter to the US experts, insisting he is not authorized to do so.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Interpol chief Ricardo Diaz also yesterday said Tatad is not a member of the law enforcement agency, adding that the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the NBI are the only agencies allowed to come up with an authorized investigation on the matter, including the voice analysis.

Diaz said that the NBI and the PNP have their own technical people to conduct an investigation, however, he admitted that both the PNP and the NBI are not capable of conducting such kind of exhaustive voice analysis.

“For us to do this, we (NBI and PNP) have to find a neutral expert to conduct the necessary voice analysis. And we must also find the original tapes for that matter,” he said.

The US Embassy has said if asked, it would only too willing to have the tapes authenticated and voices identified and confirmed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the Arroyo government has resisted having these tapes checked abroad, and by an independent body.

Meanwhile, Sen. Alfredo Lim and Catholic priest Fr. Joe Dizon said it is ironic that the focus of the Arroyo government is on the lesser wire-tapping issue vis-a-vis the greater issue of election fraud.

“The higher crime is stealing the elections, not wire-tapping,” Dizon said.

Dizon also issued a challenge to Mrs. Arroyo to face the allegations against her squarely.

“The moral obligation of the President now is to tell the nation whether it was she on the tape or not,” Dizon said during the same media forum.

Lim, for his part, said that the wire-tapping and sedition charges against Ong will not hold water even as he added that the people are interested in the contents of the tape than on the issue of wire-tapping.

Lim pointed out that the government should concentrate on the persons who issued the order to wire-tap Garcillano or Mrs. Arroyo.

“The mastermind behind the production of the tape should be charged…first is Secretary Bunye,” Lim said even as he vouched for Ong's integrity.

“Ong has never been involved in any wrongdoing…he is a silent worker…(he has) no derogatory record,” Lim recalled when he was still the director of the NBI.