Palace: Wiretap controversy showing political color

Malacañang yesterday said the revelation of lawyer Alan Paguia that the source of the "Gloriagate" tapes was former senator Francisco Tatad confirmed the opposition’s destabilization efforts against the Arroyo administration.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye dared Tatad to face the House inquiry on the matter and explain why he disseminated the tapes and asked Paguia to edit and annotate the conversations between Mrs. Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

Bunye said the President’s enemies are out to sow distrust in her by making it seem as if she cheated in the 2004 presidential race, adding that the opposition is not out to expose the truth behind last year’s elections as they claim.

"(Tatad) admitted the tapes came from him," Bunye said. "It is just proper for him to face and be questioned by the five House committees (investigating the issue)."

He also said Tatad should explain "the circumstances as to how he got hold of those tapes."

Bunye said this information clearly indicates that the presentation of the tapes was meant to weaken the presidency — efforts which he predicted would fail.

He said the tapes were spliced and doctored to make them seem as if the President was involved in cheating in last year’s elections.

"It’s all about politics. The camp of former senator Tatad is really planning something else — that’s why they came out with the tapes," Bunye said.

Hypocrites

Malacañang meanwhile called some members of the opposition "hypocrites" for refusing to admit that they also talked to Garcillano to check on their votes last year.

Bunye said Garcillano himself admitted that many other candidates called him at the time, including members of the opposition.

"When you are running for a position, you normally call the attention of the Comelec (Commission on Elections) official involved (at) your level," he said. "But there are really some who are hypocrites and say they never talked with Comelec officials."

"The members of the opposition, before (Garcillano’s) revelation came out, were pretending to be clean," Bunye said. "They impressed upon people that the mere act of talking to a (Comelec) commissioner is already illegal."

"Now that they are being named as well, they are changing tunes and saying there is nothing wrong in talking with a (Comelec) commissioner," Bunye said.

Garcillano said in an affidavit that he had also spoken with key opposition members, including House Minority Leader Francis Escudero, Sen. Jamby Madrigal and opposition vice-presidential candidate Loren Legarda during the 2004 elections.

Bunye also denied accusations that Malacañang had a hand in Garcillano’s statement clearing the President of accusations of cheating.

"We believe (that candidates of) both the administration and opposition called Garcillano," Bunye said. "What we’re saying is that the mere fact of calling an election official is not necessarily illegal, it is not indicative of the President’s attempt to ask (for the rigging) of the elections."

"We maintain that the President did not violate any law so it is just right for her to continue with her governance," he said.

Meanwhile, Bacolod City Rep Monico Puentevella said Paguia’s admission that he received the "Gloriagate" tapes from Tatad exposed the "opposition plot to bring down the government."

"Now that the source of the tapes has been revealed, it is clear to our people that this is a coordinated opposition plot to bring down the government," Puentevella said.

"Tatad, let me remind the people, was also the person who read the presidential proclamation that placed the country under martial law in 1972," he added.

According to him, the "unmistakable involvement of the opposition in this plot has crushed the credibility of the audio tapes and places them in the realm of manipulation and propaganda."

Parañaque Rep. Eduardo Zialcita, on the other hand, said in a statement that the fact that the "Gloriagate" tapes came from Tatad raises questions about whether or not the tapes were edited to "sanitize" conversations between opposition politicians and Comelec officials during the 2004 polls.

Zialcita said Tatad’s admission that he gave Paguia the recordings "places the provenance of the tapes firmly as having come from the opposition." This was a "180-degree turn from the (opposition’s) original stance that they had nothing at all to do with the release of these tapes."

He said members of the opposition "were forced by the open and transparent House probe to reveal their involvement in the tapes."

Zialcita also raised this question: "Since these purported House tapes did come from the opposition, how can we now be sure that they are actually the real, full, unedited and untampered conversations with the Comelec?"

"I fear that even the source tapes have been tampered with, perhaps to excise conversations with the Comelec by members of the opposition," he added.