Palace evades issue on Garci’s plan to run for Congress

Malacañang evaded the issue of former elections commissioner Virgilio "Garci" Garcillano and his reported plans to run for a congressional seat in the May 2007 elections.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said they are not in a position to confirm or deny Garcillano’s political plans and pointed out the former poll official should make the confirmation.

"But in case it is true, we cannot do anything about it," Bunye said. "This is a free country and any Filipino citizen who has the minimum qualifications of residence... can run in an election."

Bunye said he could not make any comment over reports that Garcillano could be invited to run under the administration ticket or seek President Arroyo’s endorsement.

"These are all speculative. We don’t really know if Garcillano is planning to run," Bunye pointed out.

Sen. Franklin Drilon confirmed Garcillano is planning to run as representative of the first congressional district of Bukidnon, currently represented by Rep. Nereus Acosta.

Acosta, who is on his third and last term, confirmed reports that Garcillano is indeed running for congressman in the province.

Drilon went on to predict Garcillano, who triggered one of worst crises to hit the Arroyo presidency, will win in his home province of Bukidnon.

Acosta, on the other hand, downplayed the prospects of Garcillano’s victory, saying the controversial former poll official hardly stays in the province.

Garcillano was the center of the controversy that hounded President Arroyo for two years.

The former poll official had been accused of rigging the results of the May 2004 elections in favor of Mrs. Arroyo.

The opposition used the allegations against the President in the first impeachment complaint which was dismissed on a technicality by the House of Representatives in September last year.

The allegations were contained in the "Hello Garci" wiretap recordings which supposedly detailed the conversations between the President and a poll official widely believed to be Garcillano.

Garcillano reportedly hid in Bukidnon when opposition lawmakers were hunting him to explain his side on the wiretapping scandal.

Garcillano had been the subject of both Senate and House inquiries for over a year, but nothing substantial came out in the investigations.

On the other hand, Garcillano’s nephew Michaelangelo Zuce is also running for mayor in Malitbog town of the province’s first district.

Zuce is a former staffmember of presidential adviser on political affairs Gabriel Claudio who helped the opposition in the "jueteng" inquiry at the Senate. Acosta said Zuce was seen "making the rounds" in the town, apparently in preparation for the forthcoming elections.

Zuce earlier testified he was at the house of Mrs. Arroyo at La Vista subdivision in Quezon City when he saw the President allegedly distributing envelopes containing money to several poll officials shortly before the May 10, 2004 elections.

He never retracted his statements although he later joined the administration through anti-gambling czar and Puerto Princesa mayor Edward Hagedorn as consultant in the government’s drive against jueteng. — With Delon Porcalla