Garci back, ready to tell all

The Philippine Star 11/23/2005

Former election official Virgilio Garcillano has returned to the country and is willing to tell all about poll fraud allegations hounding President Arroyo, ABS-CBN News Channel reported yesterday.

Opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives renewed an order for Garcillano’s arrest to compel him to shed light on the electoral fraud allegations.

Garcillano disappeared from public view in July after the opposition released audiotapes purportedly of Mrs. Arroyo’s wiretapped phone conversations with the former election official discussing ways to manipulate the outcome of the presidential election last year.

ANC reporter Ricky Carandang met with Garcillano’s wife, Grace, at an undisclosed location in Mindanao after meeting at ABS-CBN’s office in Cagayan de Oro.

Grace Garcillano said she and her husband returned home last week from an undisclosed country.

Mrs. Garcillano said her husband is willing to come forward and shed light on the poll fraud allegations against the President on condition that all his wiretapped conversations with other politicians are made public.

She added her husband spoke with many politicians during the May 2004 polls, including several from the opposition.

Garcillano’s wife added that her husband was wondering why only his phone conversations with a woman who sounded like Mrs. Arroyo were made public.

Grace Garcillano said her husband told her that he actually received more phone calls from opposition politicians during last year’s elections, including a "persistent lady caller" whom she did not identify.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) could not explain how Garcillano left the country without being detected.

Yesterday, Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez said the bureau likewise had no record of Garcillano’s reported return.

Fernandez said they checked with all international ports of entry in the country and found no record of Garcillano.

"So far, there is no record of entry of Garcillano as of our verification in all our international ports," Fernandez said in a telephone interview, adding that the bureau is verifying the report.

The BI would have been tipped off about Garcillano’s arrival since he is on the bureau’s watch list.

It is possible that Garcillano slipped in "through the backdoor," Fernandez added.

It would be difficult, however, for Garcillano to slip in unnoticed through airports because of the tight security measures preparatory to the Southeast Asian Games, he pointed out.

"The BI is specifically focusing on its watch list and the regulation of aliens at this point because of the SEA Games," Fernandez said.

The bureau also would have been notified if Garcillano returned on a chartered plane.

Fernandez said the Air Transportation Office informs the bureau of private planes entering the country and inspects all aircraft.

Garcillano is being sought by opposition lawmakers to answer questions on his alleged role in the election fraud accusations against Mrs. Arroyo.

The House of Representatives ordered Garcillano arrested after five committees investigating Garcillano’s alleged phone conversations with Mrs. Arroyo cited him for contempt and ordered his arrest after he ignored three summonses from them.

They also asked the BI to bar Garcillano from leaving the country, and requested the Department of Foreign Affairs to cancel his passport and force his deportation if he was abroad.

Deputy Speaker Emilio Espinosa, who presided over the session at the House yesterday, ordered the sergeant-at-arms to carry out the arrest order.

Espinosa gave the order after Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla, whose committee headed the House inquiry into the poll fraud allegations against Mrs. Arroyo, and Deputy Majority Leader Arthur Defensor pressed for Garcillano’s arrest.

Espinosa apparently forgot there was a standing arrest warrant for Garcillano.

Remulla wants to resume the House inquiry once Garcillano is brought in.

"There has no revocation of the warrant. The five committees have agreed that if Garcillano surfaces, the investigation would resume," said Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, whose committee on defense was among the five House panels that conducted the inquiry.

Golez added he received word that Garcillano was willing to testify in the House probe "on his terms," including making public his inappropriate phone conversations with opposition politicians during the elections last year.

"I see no problem there as long as he tells the world the whole truth and nothing but the truth, including how he was able to leave the country," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, who had accused Garcillano in the past of electoral fraud, wants Garcillano to also appear before the Senate’s own probe into the electoral fraud allegations against Mrs. Arroyo.

"That’s good news if that’s the case. Because with him alive, at least we can expect some verification as to the truth to the allegations that it was his voice that was heard in the tapes," Pimentel told reporters seeking comment.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, whose Senate committee on national defense and security is conducting the inquiry, will summon Garcillano next week, Pimentel said.

Pimentel wants to know if any opposition member spoke with Garcillano during last year’s vote count as he claimed. "If that’s the truth, then why not? Let him come out with the truth, which is more important than anything else. If he talked with opposition leaders, let him say who these leaders were."

Pimentel also criticized the immigration bureau and the Department of Justice for being clueless about Garcillano’s whereabouts.

"That means the ineptness of these two agencies is showing again and obviously they need a lot of owning up on their sources of information, assuming that it is true that Garcillano is here," he said.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, who broke ties with Mrs. Arroyo in July over the electoral fraud allegations, also welcomed Garcillano’s reported return. "Let us just wait and hear what he has to say."

Garcillano disappeared after the tapes became public in June and the opposition suspects that the Arroyo administration was involved in his disappearance. Malacañang denies the cover-up accusations.

The opposition offered at least half a million pesos in reward for any information that could lead to the return of Garcillano, who was believed to be hiding in another country.

Singapore informed Manila that Garcillano had arrived there in July and August. He was reported to be hiding either in Britain, Malaysia or the United States.

It is suspected that Garcillano left the Philippines on a private plane. The Department of Justice and the BI conducted an investigation to find out how Garcillano left the country undetected.

Garcillano was also reportedly sighted at one of the secluded beach resorts in sprawling Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority in Zambales province.

Shortly after the audiotapes surfaced, Mrs. Arroyo admitted that she had improperly telephoned an unidentified election official during last year’s presidential vote count.

She apologized for her "lapse in judgment" and described her phone calls as a clumsy bid to protect her vote amid an agonizingly slow count.

Mrs. Arroyo denied rigging the outcome and rejected opposition calls for her resignation.

Her camp accused the opposition of trying to undermine her administration to force her to step down.

After failing to rouse massive street protests to oust Mrs. Arroyo, the opposition filed an impeachment complaint in the House of Representatives.

But Mrs. Arroyo’s allies in the House quashed the complaint in September, leading to a protracted political standoff that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank warned could stall the country’s economic recovery efforts. — Jess Diaz, Marvin Sy, Pia Lee-Brago