House orders Garci’s arrest

The House of Representatives voted last night to order the arrest of missing former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, the central character in a wiretapping controversy.

The chamber made the decision after Garcillano failed to respond to its repeated invitations and summonses to appear before the inquiry into the controversy being conducted by five committees.

The issuance of a warrant of arrest, which Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. signed early last night, was recommended by the five committees, which earlier cited him for contempt.

Hours before the vote was taken, the probe panels had learned that three government law enforcement agencies, which had been tasked to find Garcillano, were apparently no match for the elusive former commissioner.

House Sergeant-at-Arms Bayani Fabic reported that the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Coast Guard had failed to locate Garcillano and served the committees’ second subpoena to him.

Fabic said his office had enlisted the help of the PNP, NBI and Coast Guard in serving the subpoena issued more than three weeks ago.

But the three agencies informed him that their efforts to locate Garcillano had "yielded negative results," he said.

The law enforcement agencies’ failure to find Garcillano prompted a party-list representative to volunteer to arrest the missing former election official himself.

"If you want, I can go to London, where we have members, and effect a citizen’s arrest," militant labor leader-turned congressman Crispin Beltran told the joint presiding officers led by Representatives Gilbert Remulla of Cavite and Teodoro Locsin Jr. of Makati, who did not take up the offer.

London is where Garcillano reportedly flew via Singapore and Subic, according to ABS-CBN News Channel.

At Malacañang, officials said it would be better if Garcillano would surface to shed light on the various controversies hounding him and the President, but it would not exert extra effort to find him.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita stressed that Garcillano, despite being one of the most sought after personalities in the wiretapping controversy, is a private citizen and is not charged with anything.

"For me, it’s better for him to come out and tell the truth so he can clear his name along with the others whose integrity have been impugned," he said. "Well, first of all I don’t know where Garcillano is, but the important thing is for him to come out."

Fabic’s report prompted opposition Rep. Rolex Suplico to tell his colleagues that he could not believe the former election official had eluded these agencies.

Suplico later told reporters the government might not be looking very hard for Garcillano "because it is in the interest of the President that he does not surface and talk."

Besides citing Garcillano in contempt and recommending his arrest, the five committees asked the Bureau of Immigration to include him in its hold-departure-order list to prevent him from leaving the country — if, indeed, he is still here as Malacañang claims.

They also voted to request the Department of Foreign Affairs to cancel his passport so he would be forced to return to Manila if found to be abroad.

Expressing exasperation over Garcillano’s disregard for the committee, Locsin said the former official had long mocked the House inquiry into the "Hello, Garci" controversy.

At one point, there was a suggestion to invite Chairman Benjamin Abalos of the Commission on Elections to shed light on his former colleague and on what Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez described as his "mischief."

Golez said Abalos and other Comelec commissioners, in a news conference this week, "have practically indicted Garcillano, saying they should not be blamed for his alleged acts of wrongdoing."

"By the way, I would like to know who appointed Garcillano," he asked the presiding officers.

"It is, of course, the President," Locsin responded, "but the more important question is who recommended this man throughout his notorious career?"

During the hearing, Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano also sought records from cellular phone service providers Smart and Globe that would detail the calls between Mrs. Arroyo and Garcillano during the election period last year.

He made the request after National Telecommunications Commission Chairman Ronaldo Solis told the hearing panels that the Anti-Wiretapping Law does not prohibit the disclosure of such details and what the law bans is the revelation of wiretapped conversations.

Cayetano said the records of when such calls were made, where and from which phones could prove whether the President and Garcillano were indeed calling each other or not.

Mrs. Arroyo’s allies, however, blocked the request.

In the "Hello, Garci" tapes, the female caller who sounds like the President is heard discussing vote rigging and winning last year’s election by more than a million votes with "Garci," believed to be Garcillano.

Mrs. Arroyo has admitted talking to an election official, though she did not identify which official. — Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero