"But as far as we are concerned, President Arroyo has already been vindicated," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.
Bunye said Mrs. Arroyo’s detractors should wait for Garcillano to appear before Congress or the courts.
"We are moving on with the national agenda and this charade, which is obviously orchestrated by the President’s detractors, is a pathetic game compared to the real game of success and triumph that is being played out in the SEA Games, and, symbolically, in our vibrant economy," Bunye said.
After months of speculation, Garcillano surfaced last week and gave media interviews in which he denied there was any poll cheating, saying he would eventually reveal the full details.
Garcillano claims that a number of opposition politicians had inappropriate phone conversations with him during last year’s election count.
Opposition legislators have charged that Garcillano’s reemergence after five months is part of a scheme by Mrs. Arroyo to discredit the opposition and dispel the controversy over her legitimacy as president.
Presidential Political Affairs Adviser Gabriel Claudio also denied accusations of a cover-up against the administration and that Garcillano is being coached on what to say. "What he will say will be completely his own, his own account, his own testimony. We are hoping that, as I said, it can be as truthful and complete as possible."
Claudio said Samuel Ong, former deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation, should also surface to help resolve the controversy.
Ong is "as much or even more of a mystery to the public and to the nation than commissioner Garcillano," Claudio said.
In a press conference last June, Ong released audiotapes allegedly of wiretapped phone conversations between Garcillano and Mrs. Arroyo discussing ways to rig the elections.
Ong claimed what he called the "mother of all tapes" had been given to him by former buddies in the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
He then dropped out of sight, fearful of threats to his life. His whereabouts remain unknown.
Claudio said the government will provide police protection for Ong and Garcillano if asked and encouraged them to come forward.
"At this time when the people’s decision to come out with their testimony on the ‘Hello Garci’ controversy will depend on the protection that may be accorded them, then I think it is but right for authorities to grant them security whether they are from the opposition or the administration."
Claudio believes the political crisis besetting the nation wouldn’t have come this far had Ong "surfaced early on after he made his initial appearance or testimonies where he claimed he had the mother of all tapes."
Ong, who called for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation following the press conference in which he released the tapes, is facing charges of inciting to sedition before the Makati City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 64 and has an arrest warrant out on him.
"The warrant of arrest stands," a court staffer told The STAR. However, Ong may post a bail bond of P24,000 if arrested.
Ong’s lawyers have a pending motion asking the court to junk the arrest warrant as well as the complaint against him.
Garcillano went into hiding in June after the opposition released audiotapes in which a man and a woman were heard allegedly plotting to rig the outcome of the election.
The voices on tape are said to be that of Garcillano and Mrs. Arroyo.
In June, Mrs. Arroyo admitted on national television that she had made a "lapse in judgment" in talking to an election official but never admitted to being the woman on the so-called "Hello, Garci" tape. She also failed to identify the official she had phoned.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said if Garcillano indeed conspired with Mrs. Arroyo to help her win in last year’s election, coming out of hiding might only backfire.
"Because the moment he testifies and he only chooses the questions he’d like to answer or invokes some kind of a personal privilege or an immunity, then the suspicions against the legitimacy of the election of the President become even stronger," he explained. "The problem is that these answers might even be more confirmed by his reappearance. It’s difficult to lie."
Cruz had earlier warned that the decision of Mrs. Arroyo’s allies in the House of Representatives to quash the impeachment complaint against her last September would only prolong the political crisis.
Garcillano has claimed that he never left the country to escape the controversy. Singapore told Manila that he was there twice, on July 14 and Aug. 14.
Local immigration authorities say they have no record of him leaving the Philippines or returning, prompting the opposition to suspect a cover-up.
It is suspected that Garcillano left on a Learjet of Subic Air International or on a chartered plane.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson grilled Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez about the matter at yesterday’s Senate hearing on the Department of Justice’s proposed 2006 budget.
"The point is that his passport was marked ‘departed’ but there are no records (of Garcillano’s departure and return) with the Bureau of Immigration. How did that happen?" Lacson asked Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said Garcillano may have left on the Subic Air jet disguised as one of the crew members, quoting a report submitted by a justice department panel formed to investigate Garcillano’s supposed departure.
The panel has recommended that the three-member Subic Air crew be charged with perjury.
Sen. Lito Lapid, a staunch Arroyo backer, defended Garcillano. He said the former election official was free to leave the country because there was no court case against him.
The Senate and the House of Representatives are conducting separate inquiries on Garcillano’s alleged role in the electoral fraud charges.
Five House committees investigating Garcillano’s alleged phone conversations with Mrs. Arroyo cited him for contempt and ordered his arrest after he ignored three summonses from them. — With Michael Punongbayan, Eva Visperas, Jose Rodel Clapano, Christina Mendez