This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 21, July 3-9, 2005
Saving a Sinking Ship Administration congressmen
finally agreed June 30 to play the CD containing the wiretapped conversations
between the President and a top election official suggesting electoral fraud
last year. More and more legislators believe Macapagal-Arroyo will be judged not
in Congress but in the streets. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA The protracted debate over whether to play
the controversial wiretapped conversations between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
and Commission on Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano ended late evening
June 30 with the majority of congressmen voting to play it in a hearing that
lasted until midnight. House members listened to the tape over pop
corn, potato chips and softdrinks. The hearing, which began June 21, is
conducted jointly by the committees on national defense, public information,
public order and safety, suffrage and electoral reforms and information and
communications technology (ICT). In an interview with Bulatlat the following
day, party-list Bayan Muna (people first) Rep. Teodoro Casiño said the
calculated move by the administration solons was not intended to know the truth
but only to save the President from further criticism. The young congressman
said Macapagal-Arroyo’s allies in the House had “no legal way to stop the
playing of the tape” in the first especially after legal luminaries and the
House legal department had said there is no legal impediment to playing the tape
in a House hearing. Days before the controversial tape was
played, administration congressmen had warned that the House could be violating
the Constitution and Republic Act 4200 (Anti-Wiretapping Act) if they played the
tape in public. This came up as witness Allan Paguia, who
gave the House a 32-minute compact disc copy of the tape, admitted that the
conversations were actually wiretapped during the canvassing of the May 2004
election returns. The CD, Paguia said, was spliced from the original three-hour
tape that he still keeps. The witness, who is a lawyer, refused to identify his
source for security reasons. On June 29, Dean Pacifico Agabin of the
Lyceum University’s College of Law said that the President’s right to privacy
must be balanced with the people’s right to information on matters of public
concern. “Now that the President has authenticated
the tape, it is imperative to tell the public what the President told the
Comelec official and what the reply was,” Agabin told the House. He was
referring to the Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo’s public apology on June 27 where she
admitted to having talked to a Comelec official after the votes had been counted
purportedly to protect her lead over closest rival, actor-turned-politician
Fernando Poe Jr. Poe, together wit his vice-presidential bet
former Sen. Loren Legarda, filed a protest with the Presidential Electoral
Tribunal (PET) but the Supreme Court ruled against their petition. Meantime, the
actor died December last year. Both Agabin and Dean Amado Valdez of the Far
Eastern University’s College of Law agreed that playing the tape in session was
not unconstitutional and that it would be in aid of legislation. The House legal
department said the same. Casiño said the President’s allies in the
House should face reality. “If they would use technicalities to block the
playing of the tape, it would be too blatant that they were protecting the
president,” he said. In turn, he said, this would further fuel
the protest against Macapagal-Arroyo. The Bayan Muna congressman added the
administration congressman seemed to have learned their lesson from the Estrada
impeachment of 2000-2001 particularly the controversial “second envelope”
containing an alleged proof of jueteng (illegal numbers game) payola
against then President Joseph Estrada. The “second envelope” controversy
triggered the second Edsa people’s uprising that led to Estrada’s ouster.
Estrada followed the footsteps of Ferdinand Marcos who was swept out of power in
1986. Before the committee secretariat could
finish the tallying of votes, congressmen allied with the President began
clapping their hands and were heard shouting “Play it, play it!” “They made it appear that they were the ones
who were eager to have the CD played but in fact were just doing an act of
self-preservation,” Casiño said. “They could not afford a ‘second envelope’
scenario, so to speak.” A weakening majority Some members of the majority bloc in the
House disagree with its “maneuverings,” however. Rep. Clavel Martinez (2nd
District, Cebu) said in an earlier interview with Bulatlat that her colleagues
are trying to suppress evidence. “It leaves a bad taste in the mouth,”
Martinez told Bulatlat. “I don’t feel good about the whole situation. They are
trying to apply all the technicalities in trying to avoid playing the tapes and
having a confrontation with the truth.” She qualified however that she is still with
the majority. In the hearings last week, Martinez said she
was sorry to have campaigned for Macapagal-Arroyo. She admitted though that she
had talked to the President twice but the latter, she said, gave no specific
reaction except to say, “I will pray for you.” Martinez could not give a categorical answer
when asked if Macapagal-Arroyo won fair and square in Cebu as what the other
administration congressmen from Cebu had claimed last week. “That is something which we have to find
other proofs about,” she said referring to the question raised about flying
voters in Cebu City particularly in the district of Rep. Antonio Cuenco.
Martinez also said it was not remote that
Government Service Insurance Service (GSIS) funds were used to campaign for the
President in the May 2004 elections. GSIS employees have charged their president
and chief executive officer (CEO) Winston Garcia for laundering the agency’s
funds. Garcia comes from an influential clan in
Cebu that is also allied with the President. He was appointed to the GSIS post
by Macapagal-Arroyo and has kept his position despite mounting calls for his
resignation last year. Meanwhile, on June 29, another congressman
left the administration bloc and declared himself an independent. Rep. Roilo
Golez of Parañaque tendered his irrevocable resignation from the President’s
coalition party Kampi and as chair of the House defense committee. He also
called for her resignation. People will decide Martinez agreed with Casiño that the House
hearings were only a venue for articulating the people’s sentiments over the
alleged election fraud committed by the President While calling the House proceedings “a
circus” and saying that this is leading to “almost nothing,” Martinez said,
“It’s going to be the public that’s going to be the judge and everything lies in
their hands. Because if you count on the way Congress is doing it business, it
is monkey business.” On the other hand, Casiño said the
opposition does not have an illusion that Congress could oust the President from
power. “Ang magtatakda n’yan ay ang kalsada” (It will be decided in the
streets), he said. Losing presidential candidate and religious
leader Bro. Eddie Villanueva echoed the same sentiments in a rally in Makati
City July 1. Villanueva publicly announced his alignment with groups calling for
the President’s resignation. “Arroyo’s presidency is illegitimate, it is a
by-product of a stolen election,” he told crowd of about 20,000. The Makati rally was the third held in a
week to call for the President’s ouster. The first rally held June 24 at the
Welcome Rotunda Manila drew 20,000 demonstrators, and the second was on June 30
in Plaza Miranda, Manila. Militant groups and anti-Arroyo opposition
parties have declared a countdown for the President’s ouster as they vowed to
hold daily rallies before her state-of-the-nation address on July 25.
Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
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