Next: ‘Seditious’ jeepney horns

Caution: Your jeepney driver’s horn could be inciting to sedition.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) warned drivers and operators of passenger jeepneys, buses and taxis to refrain from using the now-infamous "Hello, Garci" recording on their vehicle horns.

LTFRB Chairman Elena Bautista said those who persist in doing so could face charges of trying to undermine the government, although she conceded there were currently no regulations against "revolutionary" vehicle horns.

"What if an accident happens due to that horn?" she asked in Filipino. "Definitely, that’s a ground for cancellation" of their franchise.

Bautista believes a certain group is making available snippets of the controversial recordings for drivers to use as their vehicle horn tones. She said this procedure was expensive.

"It is not cheap to do this. If a transport group can pull this off, then we know somebody is financing it," she said.

Bautista urged drivers to focus instead on earning a living since the audio recordings — allegedly of President Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano discussing an attempt to rig the results of last year’s presidential election — involve a complicated legal issue.

Though the recordings have not been authenticated, Samuel Ong, former deputy director for intelligence of the National Bureau of Investigation, has been charged with inciting to sedition and violating the anti-wiretapping law after he admitted to being the source of the recordings.

Despite this, Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide spokesman George San Mateo said they are now talking to an electronics expert in order to have the recordings sampled for their vehicle horns.

He added they have also started distributing audio compact discs of the controversial recording as well as "Hello, Garci" ring tones for cellular phones.

San Mateo said they are distributing these discs and ring tones to their 250,000 members nationwide.

On the other hand, militant student groups have started holding "tape-listening sessions" in school campuses all over Metro Manila.

Anakbayan held such a session at the University of the Philippines’ Manila campus and at a community in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

"We encourage the youth to listen and find out for themselves whose voice it is in the tape. After listening, the answer should be obvious enough," Anakbayan secretary-general Eleanor de Guzman said in a statement.

Similar sessions have been held at UP’s Diliman campus, Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) and other schools in the past two weeks.

De Guzman said trucks bearing soldiers were deployed near PUP and Arellano University last week, allegedly to prevent an alleged destabilization plot arising from students. She also said military and intelligence operatives had reportedly visited the student council offices of UP Diliman and PUP.

She said various youth groups plan to hold a "national day of protest" on June 30 to announce their verdict on the authenticity of the recordings.

Audio CDs containing the controversial recording also are making the rounds among Filipino communities abroad.

"Some of these CDs are now in distribution and for sale in Singapore to interested Filipino buyers," said an overseas Filipino worker in the city state.

In Hong Kong, copies of the CD — now popularly known as "Hello, Garci" or "Gloriagate" — are being passed around for duplication.

The President left for the former British colony yesterday morning for a scheduled meeting with prospective investors.

The term "Gloriagate" is a takeoff from "Watergate," the wiretapping scandal that forced former United States President Richard Nixon to step down in 1974.

Watergate was the name of the Washington, D.C. hotel where the Democratic National Party headquarters were burgled by Nixon’s operatives.

The "Gloriagate" CD has also attracted the attention of Filipinos working in Canada and the US, many of whom were previously indifferent to the political situation in the Philippines. Copies are due for distribution in several US states.

OFWs working in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and other areas in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar are passing around and recopying the CD as well.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez earlier warned the public that anyone caught possessing the CD would be charged with either inciting to sedition or possessing illegally wiretapped documents.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, in an apparent open challenge to Gonzalez’s warning, has continued to reproduce and distribute the CDs. — Sandy Araneta, Jaime Laude