Where's Garci Now?

Gloria says: Don't look at me. I don't know where he is!

Here's a pic of the missing COMELEC Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

Lito Banayo lists down all the previous Garci sightings to help our local pulis hunt the COMELEC "election fixer":

Let me backtrack, and piece together information that I have culled from various sources as well as media reports. "Nasaan si Garci?" seems to be on everybody’s mind except Malacañang’s illegal tenant.

On June 6, 2005, a Monday, Ignacio "Toting" Bunye, official mouthpiece then and till now of Doña Gloria, exposed the Garci taped conversations of his boss, right inside the palace press office. The following Wednesday, Garci flatly said "No! That’s not me" before mediamen who staked him out at the Comelec office in Intramuros. The day after, he stopped reporting for work.

On Friday afternoon, June 10, Garci, along with some Comelec officers, including the Region IV director, Atty. Juanito Icaro, was sighted in a two-star hotel in Tagaytay City. The waiter who served Garci’s favorite Carlos Primero is the son of the caretaker of a neighbor of mine in the highland city. Garci drank his woes away till Sunday. But his ubiquitous cell phone kept ringing. The cell phone held by a faithful aide, Garci talked only to those whose voices were familiar. "Hello Garci?" could have been one of them.

On Sunday, he left the hotel and met "someone" dark-skinned at a restaurant near the rotunda where Aguinaldo Highway forks, either to Batangas or to Laguna. On Monday, June 13, he went down to Metro Manila. On Tuesday, June 14, he flew to Cagayan de Oro City. "Manong Gil" as they call him in Mindanao’s "golden city of friendship" was positively identified by Lumbia airport employees.

For two nights, Manong Gil stayed at his farm in Bukidnon, a modest-sized spread past Makahambus and the roaring Cagayan river, nestled in fairly cool weather approximating wind-swept Tagaytay. Then on Thursday, June 16, he went down and proceeded, not to his house at RER subdivision, but to his friend, Atty. Inigo Palana’s downtown Hotel Conchita. This is another two-star lodging place located beside hardware and wholesale stores near Cagayan de Oro’s Cogon market. Curiously, the Comelec regional director for Southern Tagalog, the guy whom Garci called "Dyani" in some taped conversations, also checked in at the hotel. A Batangueno who loves the charms of the friendship city, obviously.

Waiters at Conchita Hotel swear that theirs is the favorite watering hole of Manong Gil. "Sige s’ya diri. Kanunay mag-daa ug Fundador", said one. But these days, Fundador has been replaced by Carlos Primero, solamente. (Boy! Someone should initiate him into Hennessy XO. At P6,000 a bottle, that’s peanuts to the now immensely wealthy Garci.)

Coincidentally, his phone pal, GMA, misma, was in Cagayan de Oro on that Thursday, but no, she never went to Hotel Conchita. Two days later, a man who looked like Hermogenes Ebdane, DPWH Secretary, arrived on the first flight from Manila. He was met at Lumbia by a retired general, also very close to Madam Arroyo.

He tried so hard to be incognito, and did not bother to call his regional officials to any meeting. After a few hours, he left for Manila. That Saturday afternoon, June 18, a convoy consisting of one Pajero, one ambulance, and two back-up vehicles "wang-wanged" their way out of the city directly into the tarmac.

At 4:25 p.m, on board a Subic Air jet, Garci left Cagayan de Oro for Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Pampanga.

Under cover of darkness, he was lodged somewhere in Central Luzon. The following day, he was seen at the Gotesco Towers at the foot of Ayala Bridge. Some reports also said he checked out his condominium unit in Bayview Gardens on the reclaimed area beside the most expensive boulevard in the universe. Then, reports also said he was holed for days on end somewhere in Bataan, amid a fishpond said to be owned by the lord of jueteng lords. Orani, even Pilar?

Yet, Garci was able to celebrate his birthday, July 5, somewhere in the metropolis, where once more, bottles of Carlos Primero flowed. And lechon, brought by a politician, kuno, from Central Luzon.

There were sightings thereafter too, of Garci and his coterie somewhere in Laguna, in a lakeside resort in a small town near Erap’s Tanay villa. And surprise, he was paid a courtesy visit by someone inside a luxury SUV that sported a Numero Ocho plate number!

Parang UFO. Pagkadami-daming sightings, kuno! But if Gilbert asks the police, they will say, "Search us!" If Gilbert asks Wycoco of NBI, he might point to his boss, Raul Gonzales, the tormentor of Cory and Kris and Emily, this UST Law school graduate who damns the "best" law school in town, the UP. Gilbert might try asking Ebdane, now busy looking at Bailey bridges in Mindanao’s boondocks after a lifetime of "looking" for jueteng lords in Lubao as in Iba.

Fifty-two days since Bunye unveiled the tapes, July 28, 2005, some irreverent news anchor tried asking Dona Gloria if she knew where her phone-pal Garci was.

"Sobra na yung trial by publicity sa akin" was the reply. Hellller?

LOL.