From the Malaya:
THE "script" is complete and the play is now showing.
Former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano yesterday made his first public statement and confirmed he talked with President Arroyo at the height of the canvassing of the May 2004 presidential elections.
But Garcillano refused to say if it was his voice which was caught in the "Hello Garci" wiretapped recording that was made public by the Palace June 6, shortly before he disappeared.
The "Hello Garci" recordings triggered the worst political crisis in Arroyo’s political career as it raised anew questions on the legitimacy of her presidency. It led to the filing of impeachment complaints against her, but her allies at the House junked them.
Garcillano, in an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN’s Henry Omaga-Diaz in an undisclosed place in Mindanao, said he did not help rig May 10, 2004 polls in favor of President Arroyo.
Read the whole article. He denied helping Arroyo steal the election of course.
Ellen Tordesillas has a copy of the Malacanang's possible "exit strategy" plan:
The political security situationer contained in the document "New Threats to Philippine Democracy" dated Sept. 9, 2005 shows that even if she has survived the impeachment complaint, she knows that she will be in trouble when Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo assumes the presidency of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines next month.
A handwritten note inserted on the mention of CBCP under "Political Alignments: Emerging Trends" says "Change in CBCP will lead and call for PGMA resignation."
There’s a portion in the confidential document states: ‘The last question we wish to address is what should the government do, now that in the coming months there will be a race for the people’s hearts and minds. At present the administration and the anti-government side are competing for the support of key sectors that have yet to make a definite stand on the matter. Some of the influential blocs in society include:
* Other political parties such as the Liberal Party (LP) and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) that have yet to take a united and official party stand on the issue.
* While refusing to join quit-calls, the Catholic Church has adopted an open-ended position that could still change in the future. (There’s a handwritten marginal note beside this paragraph that says "Until December – we expect to see a radical posturing under the new CBCP leadership in January 2006."
Duhhhh!!! Isn't it effin obvious? Archbishop Capalla is the Prospero Pichay of the CBCP. This is the guy who supported CPR and asked people to "move on" na raw.
Continuation...
* The armed forces have retained an apolitical stand since the start of the crisis. We are aware, however, that a large segment of the military is quietly sitting on the fence right now, waiting for developments. While we trust our AFP, we cannot discount the possibility that in the event that the government fails to control the situation, it will step in if only to save the country from anarchy."
Despite Malacañang’s propaganda of US President Bush’s support for Arroyo, they know that it’s no longer the same between the two leaders. The handwritten notes at the end of the document underlined the assessment that "US factor is critical". Under it were three items: 1) Determine role in the crisis; 2) FVR continue to play the "bridge" for US thinking in Philippine scenario; 3) role of RP in US policy for Asia (no longer lead role).
No wonder, the US stand on the Philippines is all screwed up and hyprocritical. They're listening to FVR's BS! Sa middle east, they talk about spreading democracy and freedom and want to see credible elections.
Dito naman sa Pilipinas, they prefer "stability" over democracy by propping up an illegitimate ruler, probably because they were convinced by FVR na there's "no alternative" at the moment (until the Constitution is "fixed"). Maybe Ramos told them na the Philippines is like Egypt or Pakistan--that is, if you remove Mubarak or Musharraf from power, the extremists like the Muslim Brotherhood or Al Queda sympathizers will take over the gov't. So we better keep GMA in power for now, because we can't allow the possibility of extremists like the political opposition or THE COMMUNISTS!!! take over our gov't. Eh naniwala naman ang mga US advisers ni Bush kay Tabako-ko... LOL.
As for the Philippines not playing the lead role anymore, matagal na po nating alam yan. Ever since nag-surrender si Arroyo sa mga terrorista sa Iraq at pinauwi kaagad ang mga sundalo nito. In fact, Indonesia is getting more love right now from the US than RP.
Next to those items were more notes: "Poor acceptability of GMA in Bush administration; high risk for US under PGMA; incompatibility of interest between GMA boys and US business; declining public popularity not conducive to the US; indifference of international community to GMA leadership (Japan, China, Germany, EU and Muslim countries); high profile graft."
On the question of Arroyo’s possible ouster, their assessment is what is known to everybody: the failure of anti-Arroyo forces to consolidate. There was a hand written note: "It is all geared up – waiting for its tipping points."
The conclusion was upbeat: "In short, the Arroyo administration is still the best alternative at present. We also witnessed how Her Excellency’s support base consolidated at critical times." Next to that is a handwritten note: "PGMA continuously update and shape her Exit Plan."
No, credible elections is the only alternative to the fake president.
More here from PCIJ and the Garci palabas.
At eto naman ang mas complete version ng Political Security Situationer ni Arroyo.
From Neal Cruz:
Even before he shows up, Garci is already making a mockery of the House of Representatives (in fact, he and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales are making a mockery of the whole Congress) by making all sorts of demands. "Lift the P1 million bounty on my head. Lift my arrest warrant!" he demanded. (He even told the press the sort of coverage he wants for himself.) As if it were a dog obeying the command of the master, the House promptly granted both demands.
As for Gonzales, he is still in contempt of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Sen. Joker Arroyo for refusing to answer questions on the Venable contract that he signed. First, he feigned illness so that he would be confined at the Heart Center instead of in the Senate; then he asked for a "medical leave" so that he would be set free temporarily while still undecided on having a "heart bypass operation." Then he returned to work at the National Security Office without answering the senators' questions on the Venable contract. And the contempt citation and the questions were forgotten by the senators, especially Senator Arroyo, as though they were suddenly stricken with amnesia. Not a peep out of them.
What I'm driving at is that Congress is slowly losing respect and credibility as the executive branch slowly chips away at its authority. Besides, there are Executive Order No. 464 which was issued by the President and directs officials and employees not to testify at congressional hearings; the Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR) policy on street protests; and the order preventing military officers from testifying on poll cheating.
This is a pity because Congress is the only co-equal branch of government left. The Supreme Court is now perceived to be too timid to cross the President it helped put in office. All these affronts and insults Congress is taking without fighting back, as if taking cue from the notorious advice of Sen. Raul Manglapus to women about to be raped. (Pardon the comparison.)
Well, what do you expect from this Admin-controlled congress? Mano-"noted" na naman tayo nyan.
From de Quiros:
The opposition candidates called up Garci too? Then by all means let us arrest them too and prosecute them too and, where we find them guilty, punish them too. Why should the allegation that opposition candidates called up Garci to jack up their votes justify the fact that GMA called up Garci to jack up her votes? Being able to point to another person as having committed rape does not justify rape. Being able to point to another person as having murdered does not justify murder. Two wrongs do not make a right, they make a deeper wrong. A shared crime does not make two people commonly innocent, it makes them equally guilty.
WORD!!!
Btw, nag-convert na ba si Virgilio Garcillano to Islam? Just asking.
From Ninez:
Garci is talking, not before the congressional panels, but to broadcast media.
Not surprisingly, however, what he is doing, even as he appears before the cameras, is to deny that there was any poll rigging.
Not surprisingly either, he says the tapes played were tampered with, having already been spliced as he focuses his attacks on the opposition candidates he claimed had also called him, preparing even a list of those he says called him. They called him to cheat too? Wow. He has just acknowledged his reputation as a first-class poll cheat operator.
What was even more amazing was that Garcillano even claimed he was not sure it was his voice on the tape, as he said in Sunday's interview with ABC-CBN's Henry Omaga-Diaz that the tape had been spliced and spurious.
If that is to be Garci's line in the clearing of Gloria Arroyo in the massive poll cheating operations, there certainly won't be any closure to the “Hello Garci” business because his story won't be credible at all.
For one, it has been established by at least two foreign audio experts that the tapes submitted for their expert studies, one done in Australia and the other in the United States, were not spliced or tampered with. Moreover, two local experts, early on, also judged that the tapes were not spliced or tampered with.
That Malacañang and its propagandists knew that the tape was for real was much too evident when they tried to cover up the crime last June by (a) coming out publicly with two versions of the tape, with Toting Bunye calling a press conference and claiming that the original tape had Gloria speaking to her political operator (later identified as Edgar “Gary” Raudo) which he said was “privileged” communications and the other, a fake one (which turned out to be the real conversations on the tape) with Gloria speaking 15 times with Garcillano.
There are videos of Bunye clearing and stating that it was the voice of Gloria on the tape, but not the voice of Garcillano, insisting it was Ruado. This can hardly be denied by Bunye.
Malacañang's nino bonito, Mike Defensor, also knew it would be extremely difficult to claim it was not Gloria and Garci on the tape, and so he came up with another dirty trick, which was to send a tampered tape to another US audio expert who is known to have analyzed the voice tapes of Osama bin Laden.
Defensor knew damn well what the American audio expert's conclusion would be: That the tape was tampered with, which was what Defensor wanted.
Then he tapped Jonathan Tiongco, passing him off as a local audio expert, to come up with an even more astounding tale, claiming the words yung dagdag, yung dagdag which Gloria uttered, were nothing but the mention of the name of a town in the Visayas, if slowed down.
Those he invited to the press conference were apparently fooled into attending it, as they were presented by Defensor with audio experts who have already concluded that this tape was tampered with and spliced. They came out the next day to denounce the trick Defensor and Tiongco played on them, with one of them stating there was no splicing and the words yung dagdag, said twice, were the same words, no matter if one plays it at high speed or low speed.
What Garci forgets even as he denies there was any poll rigging is the fact that it is not only the Hello Garci tape that proves there was massive fraud already during elections, and more cheating after the polls, to ensure for Gloria a one million vote-fraud lead over Fernando Poe Jr. There is enough documentary and testimonial evidence that can substantiate that which they did by way of poll cheating, which dovetails with the incidents discussed in the tapes. So who is Garci, and by extension, Gloria, fooling by coming up with such denials?
But the strategy of the Gloria-Garci scheme appears to be for Garci to surface — at least in the media — to put the blame on the opposition bets, stating that he has a list of opposition bets who called him up.
Is this being done to frighten the opposition into shushing its members from pushing the inquiries into the poll cheating?
Say one female opposition member did call him and that she had paid poll operators to cheat for her to land an elective seat. So what? Let her fry. Even if she is in the opposition, she should be exposed, as she too, may have cheated her way to her elective seat.
Tama ka, Ninez!
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Ginagago na naman si Sen. Magsaysay
I'm not surprised anymore that this is happening. Under this criminal administration, anything is possible:
Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. over the weekend said he had again gotten a fresh warning of receiving retaliation from those being affected by his panel's inquiry into the alleged misuse of P3-billion fertilizer funds by the Arroyo administration for calling in during the last hearing a surprise witness who claimed to be a “fixer” or “runner” of First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, a known close associate of key “fertilizer scam” figure, former Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc joc” Bolante.
Magsaysay, Senate committee on agriculture and food chairman, told reporters that he had been asked by some individuals, whom he did not name, to stop his panel's probe into the fertilizer “scam” controversy or he “could be hurt.”
Maybe he should just stop the investigation on the fertilizer scam na lang ala Blue Ribbon chairman Joker Arroyo on Norberto Gonzalez (like calling it a "waste of time") para tigilan na rin siya ng admin. ;)
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Arroyo critic of the most expensive boulevard in the universe arrested
Arroyo gets back at former allies for exposing the Diosdado Macapagal Blvd. scam.
A CRITIC of President Arroyo yesterday said his arrest on libel charges last Friday was in retaliation by Malacañang for his exposure of big time graft and corruption and his participation in the oust-Arroyo campaign.
Pastor "Boy" Saycon, secretary general of the Council on Philippine Affairs, said the service of the arrest warrant on him, at 6:30 p.m. last Friday was also highly irregular in that warrants are not supposed to be served shortly before the weekend.
Saycon, nonetheless, was able to find a judge, Selma Alaras of the Makati regional trial court, last Saturday and a filed a bail of P10,000.
Had a judge not been available, Saycon would have not been able to post bail until Tuesday because of the weekend three non-working days.
The arrest warrant against Saycon, dated November 14, was issued by Judge Rommel Baybay of the Makati regional trial court of branch 132.
The arrest order stemmed from a P10 million libel suit filed by Public Estates Authority chairman Ernest Villareal.
In 2002, Saycon and other members of the group Plunder Watch filed a case before the Ombudsman against PEA officials who undertook the construction of the allegedly anomalous Diosdado Macapagal Avenue at the Roxas boulevard reclamation site.
Saycon said he was the only one among the complainants who was slapped with a libel suit.
Saycon was joined by PEA director Sulficio Tagud Jr., Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Gabriela and E-Just, among other groups, in the complaint against Villareal, PEA general manager Benjamin Cariño and 24 others.
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