PHONE conversations of political leaders and private persons identified with two rivals of President Arroyo in the May 2004 presidential elections were bugged by a unit of the Intelligence Service of the AFP.
The Isafp, it was learned during a hearing yesterday of the Senate committee on national defense and security, keeps in its "Blue Room" a highly-technical wiretapping equipment called the Cellular Interceptor-GSM Digital that is "available to government agencies only."
The equipment, according to a brochure provided by Sen. Sergio Osmeña III to committee chairman Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, costs $420,000 or about P25 million.
Osmeña obtained the brochure from the website of the "Spy World" in the Internet.
"Children" recordings of the "mother of all tapes," which were played during the hearing, showed that the office phones of former Sen. Gregorio Honasan and a mobile phone of Maj. Gen. (ret.) Rodolfo Canieso were tapped during the campaign period between January and June 2004.
The "children" recordings consisted of two audiotapes provided to the Biazon panel by Samuel Ong, former NBI deputy director for intelligence.
Ong claims he has in his possession the original copy of the "mother of all tapes" containing the bugged conversations between President Arroyo and former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
Honasan was the head of the vote security group of the late Fernando Poe, Arroyo’s closest rival in the elections. Canieso, former chief of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, is a member of the Soldiers for Peace and Progress Movement which helped protect the votes of Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the 2004 elections.
Honasan was still a senator when his office phones were bugged.
And more here about an emissary sent by the Palace to stop the investigation.
Malacañang sent a presidential emissary to Sen. Rodolfo Biazon with a plea for him to cancel the Senate investigation of the wiretapping activities that also mentioned the names of several military and police generals who were said to have engaged in rigging the polls to favor of President Arroyo.
There was apparently reason for the President to worry, as the probe revealed that not was the President and Commander-in-Chief tapped illegally, but that the whole wiretapping operations was done by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp) who had spied on several opposition activities by tapping their telephones, mobile and landline.
Marieta Santos, lover of T/S Vidal Doble, who had earlier admitted that he handed the “Hello Garci” tapes to former National Bureau of Investigation Deputy chief Samuel Ong, identified several Isafp MIG agents through their voices in the tapes, as annotators.
Malacañang tried to prevent the probe from continuing, but Biazon, committee chairman, stood his ground and refused to blink.
It was established in yesterday’s Senate hearing that it was the Isafp, under orders of someone higher than their military chiefs ordered the illegal wiretapping activities. Although names were not mentioned, it was made evident that the order, illegal as it is, could only have come from the top chief — the President and commander in chief.
It was also established that as early as Jan. 2004, the wiretapping covered even the camps of then two rivals of Mrs. Arroyo in the presidential race: Sen. Panfilo Lacson and the late Fernando Poe Jr.
Biazon, when contacted by the Tribune, confirmed the information of the Palace emissary sent to seek him out but refused to elaborate on details such as the identity of the Malacañang representative.
Sources said the “emissary” sought an audience with the senator, who ran and won under the banner of the administration coalition party during the 2004 polls, in Senate office as he had been quoted announcing that six witnesses stand to testify in the resumption of the probe on the so-called “Garci tapes.”
Sources, however, are not privy as to what was on offer or how the offer was made, but said Biazon was “fuming mad” over such a brazen Palace ploy to stop him from doing his mandated duty, He was quoted as saying no amount of pressure from Malacañang could stop him from investigating the matter.
“They can send as many emissaries as they want but I will not be stopped (from getting to the bottom of the case),” sources quoted the senator as supposedly saying.
Next: Biazon wants to know who ordered ISAFP to do the wiretapping.
AFTER the Senate committee on national defense and security established that military intelligence agents bugged phone conversations of opposition political leaders during the 2004 elections, its next job is to identify who authorized the wiretapping.
Committee chairman Sen. Rodolfo Biazon yesterday said he is planning to go to the courts to compel top military officials to answer questions on the recordings.
"There lies the big question and we will continue to pursue the answer or answers to this specific question: Who authorized the wiretapping operations that was mounted against the opposition during the election of 2004?" he said in a press briefing.
The committee, which is investigating the "Hello Garci" election fraud scandal, on Thursday concluded that a core group of the Intelligence Service of the AFP bugged the phone conversations not only between President Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano but also political leaders allied with the late Fernando Poe Jr. and Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who both ran against President Arroyo in 2004.
Biazon said it was possible that Gen. (ret.) Narciso Abaya, AFP chief during the election period, was "bypassed" when the wiretapping was carried out.
Biazon said only two authorities could bypass the AFP chief of staff, and these are the defense secretary (then Eduardo Ermita, now executive secretary) and the commander in chief, who is President Arroyo.
Me, I want to know naman if ISAFP is still spying/wiretapping on opposition and administration officials (and members of the media) to this day.
(additional question: bakit tahimik lang si Joker Arroyo sa isyung ito? usually, the guy gets all worked up over this kind of issue... kesyo "martial law" tactic raw yan at invasion of privacy yan.
BAKIT TAHIMIK LANG SI JOKER NGAYON WHEREAS MAINGAY SIYA SA GANITONG ISSUE DATI???)
This smells like Watergate:
Senators are out to make the Armed Forces of the Philippines answer charges on the apparent massive wiretapping operations at the height of 2004 elections by the Intelligence Service of the AFP (Isafp) even if they would have to haul the intelligence unit to court just so it could be directed to testify before the Senate.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the committee on national defense and security looking into the wiretapping of President Arroyo, yesterday said he is seriously considering taking the issue to court to enable the Senate to compel the Isafp officials’ appearance in the ongoing hearing.
“We will determine that later. This is still a thought that is now crystallizing in my mind because that could be the last resort, really. I learned from the Watergate incident because they went to court,” he added.
“I’m considering this option ...the committee going to court to compel the appearance of those personalities to testify before the hearing, much like what was done in the Watergate issue when the United States’ Senate compelled the appearance of that tape that led to the threat of impeachment by the US Senate against then US President Richard Nixon,” Biazon stressed.
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