EDITORIAL – Belated authentication

This should have been done a long time ago. Sen. Panfilo Lacson challenged the administration yesterday to submit to neutral experts for authentication tapes of wiretapped phone conversations that purportedly implicate President Arroyo in vote rigging in the elections last year. The challenge was accepted by Environment Secretary Michael Defensor, who announced at a press conference yesterday the findings of an American sound expert that the tapes had been digitally altered.

Lacson did not dispute the credibility of the US expert and said he was ready to apologize to President Arroyo and even move for the withdrawal of the impeachment complaint against her if the findings were accurate. But he wondered which tapes Defensor had submitted to the expert, and claimed the opposition’s tapes had been authenticated by experts in Australia.

Since this scandal erupted, authentication of the tapes should have been the first order of business for both the administration and opposition. Instead both camps were content to play their own versions of the tapes, with each side claiming authenticity on their mere say-so. There was Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, playing two versions of the tapes. There was former National Bureau of Investigation official Samuel Ong, now missing in action, claiming he had the master tapes. There was lawyer Alan Paguia, also claiming he had the original tapes. CDs of the purported conversations and various transcripts circulated freely.

A president may soon face an impeachment trial based on some version of those tapes. From the start the opposition and administration should have pushed for an authentication of the tapes by neutral experts chosen by both sides. The way this scandal played out, however, it seems there is no version of the recorded conversations that has not been tampered with in some way. Also, the complete conversations may implicate opposition figures in phone calls that may be interpreted as attempts to influence election officials.

Whether illegally obtained recordings can be used as evidence in an impeachment is still open to debate. Even before that question is settled, however, both sides should decide which taped conversation is the subject of dispute. Having decided on this, the protagonists should jointly pick independent experts who can attest to the authenticity of the tapes. These suggestions have been made before, but all the players in this drama thought their stories would be taken as gospel truth. Both sides will pay a price for their irresponsibility.