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By Efren L. Danao Senior
Reporter
The Senate on Tuesday reopened
its investigation into the “Hello, Garci” controversy that has
beset the Arroyo administration since June 2005 but seemed to have
simmered down this year.
Acting as a committee of the
whole presided over by Senate President Manuel Villar, the Senate
will invite T/Sgt. Vidal Doble, former chief of staff Gen. Efren
Abu, all members of the team that allegedly wiretapped telephone
calls between President Arroyo and former Commission on Elections
Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
The decision to hold a new
investigation into the “Hello, Garci” tapes came after Sen.
Panfilo Lacson delivered a privileged speech that included the
playing of a taped interview with Doble.
Lacson said Doble had finally
found the courage to reveal the whole truth about “Hello, Garci.”
“Although he was prevented by
fear for his safety and that of his family who were virtually
kidnapped by the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and detained
for years in its restrictive custody, he has now come to bare the
truth, so that the Senate investigations into the farce that was the
elections of 2004 can be put to its closure,” Lacson said.
In a recorded statement, Doble
said that as member of Military Intelligence Group 21 of the
Intelligence Service, he was part of Operation Lighthouse that
wiretapped the conversations of the late Fernando Poe Jr., who ran
as president against Mrs. Arroyo and lost; Horacio Morales, who
served in the Cabinet of ex-President Joseph Estrada; Rez Cortez, a
movie actor who helped Poe in his campaign; Sen. Gregorio Honasan,
Secretary Michael Defensor, members of the Magdaló group, and
others.
Doble said he was with former
deputy director Samuel Ong Jr. of the National Bureau of
Investigation at the San Carlos Seminary in Makati when Ong
conducted a press conference. He added that Bishop Socrates Villegas
fetched him at the seminary and took him to the headquarters of Gen.
Efren Abu, then chief of staff, in Camp Aguinaldo.
He said that when he saw his
daughters and wife at the basement of Abu’s headquarters, he
decided against continuing with his planned expose on the “Hello,
Garci” tapes.
Doble claimed that he decided to
come into the open after almost two years because the alleged
cheating that took place in 2004 was again rampant in the last
elections.
Lacson said “Operation
Lighthouse” is extremely alarming since it allowed officials
belonging to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (Isafp) to eavesdrop on the conversations of whomever
they choose. He noted that the targeted persons were not even
terrorists.
“But not only had the Isafp
been ordered to do its dastardly deed; no less than the leadership
of the AFP became party to covering up for the crimes they committed
by threatening vital witnesses who sought to tell the truth,”
Lacson said.
He said the wiretapping was
facilitated by a service provider who willingly cooperated and
conspired with Isafp. He did not identify the service provider but
said Doble would do so when called by the Senate committee of the
whole to testify.
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