This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 2, February 12-18, 2006
Garci Failed
to Resolve Search for Truth, Says Bishop
BY
ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The testimonies of
former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano have not been able to finally
resolve the search for truth on the issues surrounding the legitimacy of the
Macapagal-Arroyo presidency, a Catholic bishop said in an interview with
Bulatlat.
President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo has had to confront questions on the credibility of her victory
in the 2004 elections where she is supposed to have received a fresh mandate
three years after being catapulted to power through a popular uprising. The
surfacing in mid-2005 of recorded copies of conversations in which a woman with
a voice similar to hers is heard instructing an election official, widely
suspected to be Garcillano, to rig the polls further raised questions regarding
her mandate. The recordings of the conversations have since become known as the
“Hello Garci” tapes.
Macapagal-Arroyo
admitted also last year that she had talked to an election official during the
vote-counting period, triggering intensification of calls for her resignation or
removal from office. Garcillano, meanwhile, surfaced late last year after months
of hiding to declare in congressional investigations that he was not the voice
in the tapes and that the elections were clean.
In spite of
Garcillano’s testimonies, the Jan. 29 pastoral statement of the CBCP still
called for a “relentless” pursuit of the truth, through “structures and
processes mandated by law and our Constitution, such as the Ombudsman, the
Commission on Human Rights, the Sandiganbayan, and Congress itself as well as
other citizens’ groups.”
The pastoral
statement, signed by CBCP chairman Angel Lagdameo, Archbishop of Jaro,
Iloilo, was
released after a series of public appearances and statements by Garcillano. Does
this mean that he failed to contribute to the unearthing of the truth being
sought out?
“There are still a
lot of questions that remain unanswered,” said Caloocan Bishop Deogracias
Iñiguez, chairman of the CBCP Commission on Ecumenical Affairs. “One of our
premises is that we the bishops are trying to reflect on what we have been
hearing.”
“You know what the
impression of the press is on these events, and the people are saying that this
is not yet the end of the story, that there is still something we must strive to
pursue,” Iñiguez said.
Asked what the
CBCP perceived as still missing in the search for truth, Iñiguez said that what
really happened in the election had to be brought out in the open. “We have to
probe that,” he said. “What really happened in the election, and what was the
role of Garcillano and others in that? I am sure there are many other things
that will be found out if we work hard at getting to the core of the matter.”
“The people
themselves are not satisfied about what we have reached in this search so far,”
Iñiguez added.
A number of the
groups opposed to Macapagal-Arroyo have been calling for another EDSA-type
uprising, like those staged in 1986 and 2001 which toppled former Presidents
Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, respectively. What is the CBCP’s stand on
this possibility? Does it perceive an EDSA-type uprising as
counter-constitutional or unconstitutional?
While in an
earlier pastoral statement, released July 10, 2005, the CBCP rejected
alternatives that are “counter-constitutional or unconstitutional,” Iñiguez said
that the statement does not bar cause-oriented groups from staging protest
actions as expression of their participation in the search for the truth. “That
is their own decision based on their understanding and perception of the
national situation,” he said.
“We see public
servants struggling for integrity and the authentic reform of the corrupted
institutions they are part of,” the pastoral statement reads. “We acknowledge
groups of dedicated laity, religious and clergy, NGOs and various associations,
including police and military personnel, giving of themselves to improve the
governance, education, health, housing, livelihood and environmental conditions
of our people. These people, united by a vision of heroic citizenship, are
reasons for hope, even in the midst of the political crisis we find ourselves
in.”
What
characteristics does the CBCP look for in a leader or group of leaders that
would be offered as a replacement for the Macapagal-Arroyo regime for it to be
considered as a credible alternative? “Their words, their character, and their
leadership should be believable,” Iñiguez said. “They should be persons of
integrity.” Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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