PHILIPPINE LAWMAKERS CALL INQUIRY ON ARROYO TAPES

(Recasts with agreement on inquiry) By Stuart Grudgings MANILA, June 15 (Reuters) - Philippine lawmakers agreed on Wednesday to investigate accusations that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo tried to cheat in last year's elections, raising pressure on her to break her silence on the issue.

The government said earlier it had filed sedition charges against a former intelligence official who said he had tapes of a wiretapped conversation with an election official in which Arroyo appears to condone manipulating the results of the polls. The government has said the recording was doctored as a plot by the opposition, but lower house lawmakers called on Arroyo and the election official, Virgilio Garcillano, to give evidence at an inquiry set for next week.

"It's high time that we get statements from the president and Garcillano," said Roilo Golez, a congressman and a former national security adviser to Arroyo. "They should answer the allegations."

Arroyo, whose popularity has slumped to record lows, is also facing charges that family members took payoffs from illegal gambling. None of the accusations have been proven and analysts say mass protests of the kind that toppled her predecessor Joseph Estrada in 2001 are unlikely.

But the scandals have unnerved investors on concerns that economic reforms will get bogged down. Philippine stocks slumped last week after news of the wiretapping emerged and the peso fell to a four-month low against the dollar on Tuesday.

"If this crisis continues, there is no telling what long-term effects this will have on investments, trade, and job-creation efforts," the Makati Business Club, the country's top business group, said in a statement.

"PLAY THE TAPES"

It added that Arroyo should allow the tapes to be examined by a "credible third party" to determine if they are genuine.

Gilbert Remulla, an opposition congressman, said lawmakers would ask experts from Britain's Scotland Yard and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to authenticate the recordings, which would be played during the hearings. Arroyo herself has made no comment on the controversy.

"These tapes are clearly just being used for political propaganda," her spokesman Ignacio Bunye said on Wednesday, reiterating that Arroyo would not comment on the issue.

Samuel Ong, a retired National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) official, said last week that he had been given the original tapes by intelligence agents who tapped the mobile phones of Garcillano and Arroyo. The NBI said on Wednesday it had charged Ong with sedition for calling for the overthrow of the Arroyo government.

Ong moved to a secret location on Monday after spending three nights holed up in a Catholic seminary in the capital.

About 1,000 left-wing activists and supporters of ousted president Joseph Estrada rallied outside the Congress building in Manila on Wednesday, shouting "Gloria resign!" and holding placards reading "Play the tapes." But after two "people power" uprisings and at least a dozen coup attempts in the past two decades that have done little to end rampant corruption or alleviate widespread poverty, commentators are sceptical of the opposition's motives.

"Do any of the players in this scandal really want to know the truth or do they simply want to kick out the current occupant of Malacanang (the presidential palace) through incendiary allegations so that a new bunch of crooks can take over," wrote Philippine Star columnist Ana Marie Pamintuan.