DOJ panel to probe illegal wiretapping

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez created yesterday a special committee to investigate the apparent wiretapping of an alleged conversation between President Arroyo and an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Named to the committee were Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, and Justice Undersecretaries Macabangkit Lanto, Ernesto Pineda and Ramon Liwag.

However, Zuño said he would inhibit himself from any preliminary investigation conducted by the special committee.

"I have to inhibit myself being a member of the committee," he said. "Either Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon or whoever the DOJ secretary will appoint will be the one to conduct the preliminary investigation," he said.

Gonzalez has ordered Zuño to coordinate with law enforcement agencies led by the National Bureau Investigation (NBI).

Zuño said they could only invite people, but could not compel them to appear before the special committee.

"Like in jueteng, we just give them an invitation," he said.

"We cannot compel them to come. This is also not to create a chilling effect on the media… It is an honest-to-goodness, fact-finding investigation."

Zuño said this is the first time a special committee was created in the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate a case of illegal wiretapping.

"This is not a preliminary investigation," he said.

"We are just constituted as a fact-finding investigating committee.

If evidence warrants, we will recommend to the secretary of justice for a preliminary investigation and file the necessary charges if the evidence warrants it. We have to meet first. The NBI should be the complainant. It could be by invitation."

Once the NBI files the case before the DOJ, the special committee will issue a subpoena to whoever is involved and require them to file a counter-affidavit, Zuño said.

Meanwhile, military insiders told The STAR yesterday the telephone of Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was ordered tapped by the top political leadership.

"This is because the administration party, as we’ve learned, considered Garcillano as a vulnerable target of the political opposition for them to be able to cheat in the last elections," military insiders said.

The military insiders said the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) had "successfully" monitored most if not all of Garcillano’s calls.

"It just happened that on several occasions the President called up Garcillano and there’s no way for the military’s technical team to simply dismantle already-in-place ‘connections,’" military insiders said.

"So they just let it pass and the recorded conversations were later kept secret."

However, Rear Adm. Tirso Danga, Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for intelligence, denied yesterday that any tape was missing from the ISAFP.

Speaking to reporters in one of the shortest press conferences ever held at Camp Aguinaldo, Danga said the military is not hiding anything from the public.

"Walang tape na nawawala at wala kaming itinatagong tape dahil hindi namin trabaho ang mag-wiretap (No tape is missing and we are not hiding any tape because it is not our job to wiretap)," he said.

After making the two-second announcement, Danga hastily left the Public Information Office briefing room, leaving journalists covering the military beat puzzled.

The military insiders said they themselves were surprised that the alleged taped conversation between Mrs. Arroyo and Garcillano had landed in the hands of the political opposition.

"There must be an opposition mole inside ISAFP," military insiders said.

Several military insiders told The STAR that ISAFP was indeed involved in "massive wiretapping operations" before, during and after the May 10 elections last year.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the military insiders said the ISAFP bugged those in the government whose loyalty to the administration was under question, among them Garcillano.

Reports reaching The STAR yesterday afternoon said the ISAFP leadership had barred all personnel from entering and leaving its compound in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Sources said the ISAFP agents suspected of tapping Mrs. Arroyo’s telephone had been placed under arrest and were now detained at their headquarters.

ISAFP agents are worried over a "witch-hunt" being undertaken by the Armed Forces high command to arrest whoever was responsible for the leak of the alleged recorded conversations between Mrs. Arroyo and her officials, sources added.

Unconfirmed reports also claimed that a certain Capt. Eric Rebong, acting MIG-21 chief, had been placed under arrest yesterday afternoon.

However, another ISAFP officer denied the reported arrest of Rebong, saying this was just aimed at sowing confusion among ISAFP members.

"The plan is to create distrust in ISAFP," he said. "That is their plan." — With Jaime Laude, Mike Frialde, Paolo Romero