This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 19, June 19-25, 2005
Justice Chief Should
Probe Wiretapping – Law Professor
A professor of law at the
University of the Philippines said that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales should
investigate the taped conversation allegedly involving President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). This,
said Marvic Leonen in an interview with Bulatlat, is because
Gonzales himself had admitted that there is such a conversation by saying that
the contents of the tape were obtained by wiretapping.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO A professor of law at the
University of the Philippines said that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales should
be investigating the taped conversation allegedly involving President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) –said
to be Virgilio Garcillano. This, said Marvic Leonen in an interview with
Bulatlat over the weekend, is because Gonzales himself had admitted
that there is such a conversation by saying that the contents of the tape were
obtained by wiretapping. Press Secretary Ignacio
Bunye had released June 6 two CDs containing audio files of what he said was a
taped conversation between the President and a political leader of the
administration Lakas-CMD in Mindanao, southern Philippines. One of them, Bunye
said, was a version purportedly altered by the opposition to make it appear that
Macapagal-Arroyo had cheated in the 2004 presidential election. Both “original” and
“tampered” have portions in which a woman – said to be Macapagal-Arroyo – was
asking a man (“Gary” in the “original” version, “Garci” in what Bunye called the
tampered version) if she would still win by a million votes. Macapagal-Arroyo
won by a million votes over her closest rival, Fernando Poe, Jr. Days later, lawyer Alan
Paguia, counsel for deposed President Joseph Estrada, would come out with a
longer tape, and after a few days he would be followed by National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI) agent Samuel Ong who claimed to possess the “mother of all
tapes.” Ong said his source was military intelligence agent T/Sgt. Vidal Doble,
who denied this. Gonzales had dismissed the
content of the tapes as obtained from wiretapping. The Anti-Wiretapping Law
declares it unlawful for any person, “not being authorized by all the parties to
any private communication or spoken word, to tap any wire or cable, or by using
any other device or arrangement, to secretly overhear, intercept, or record such
communication or spoken word by using a device commonly known as a dictaphone or
dictagraph or dectaphone or walkie-talkie or tape recorder, or however otherwise
described.” In the case of the
Malacañang tape, the contents were allegedly obtained by tapping mobile phone
conversations. In an e-mail to Bulatlat, Dr. Giovanni Tapang, a physics
professor at UP, explained how cellphone tapping is done: “Since cellphones are just
radio devices, radio signals emanating from your phone can be received and
recorded just like any other radio device. It is true that signals from digital
GSM phones are encrypted as the phone companies say but these signals can still
be decrypted off-line with a computer and enough time. Essentially these are
what the expensive equipment do. Admissible or not Former Army Capt. Rene
Jarque, who used to head the military’s Psychological Operations Department,
declined to comment when asked whether the Intelligence Service of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) indeed taps telephone conversations.
But Jarque, who is also a
convenor of the broad Action against Corruption and Tyranny Now! (ACT Now),
chose to comment on the issue’s legal and political aspects. “Legally, the
wiretapped conversations are inadmissible as evidence (as in our system,
conviction can only happen if there is admissible testimony, documentary or
physical evidence),” he said, “but what happens now that it is out and people
are aware. You know the crime was committed but the evidence precludes
conviction.” But according to Leonen,
who is also a convenor of the recently-launched Movement of Concerned Citizens
for Civil Liberties (MCCCL), it has yet to be proven whether the contents of the
tape were indeed obtained by wiretapping. Sorsogon Rep. Francis Escudero, House
Minority Leader, expressed a similar view June 17 in an interview over GMA-7. Beyond wiretapping Leonen also said that the
issue goes beyond the Anti-Wiretapping Law. “Gonzales says there was
wiretapping,” he pointed out. “If there was no wiretapping, the conversation
would be fictitious. He is putting himself into a corner. If he says there was
wiretapping, it means there was communication between whoever is the woman on
the tape and the man.” “Why doesn’t he investigate
the conversation?” asked Leonen, who also serves as legal counsel of the
University of the Philippines. Macapagal-Arroyo, likewise,
should order Gonzales to investigate the contents of the tape and persuade both
houses of Congress to do so, Leonen said. “Regardless of legality, she is
obliged to explain the issues related to allegations against her because she is
the president of the Republic of the Philippines,” Leonen explained. As regards Gonzales, Leonen
had this to say: “It is not right for the secretary of justice to act as the
president’s lawyer. The secretary of justice is a public official, our lawyer
that is supposed to take care of the interest of the state. He is not Macapagal-Arroyo’s
secretary.” Asked whether he thought
there was already a betrayal of public trust with the way Macapagal-Arroyo and
her allies have been handling the issue, Leonen said: “I cannot say that yet,
but as far as I’m concerned, my president disappointed me. Her allies in
Congress have disappointed me. There is no serious investigation to find out the
contents of the tape, if they are authentic. The only group that can do that is
government.” Betrayal of public trust is
an impeachable offense under the 1987 Constitution. Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
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Bulatlat
”Of course the task of the wiretapper becomes easier if they have access to the
phone companies. Or to your phone.”