P.5 M offered for info on ‘Garci’

Opposition congressmen and impeachment petitioners are offering at least P500,000 in reward money to anyone who can lead authorities to elusive former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

"We want to find him alive not because we need him as a witness in the impeachment case but because we want to ensure that he is safe and free from harm," House Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said.

The Bureau of Immigration also issued a hold-departure order on Garcillano yesterday.

Cayetano said the government is not doing enough to look for and produce Garcillano "so we want to do it, and we want to protect him."

"We don’t want those with different agendas to harm him. If anything happens to him, that could result in chaos that might affect the impeachment process, which we don’t want to happen. We want this process to be completed," he said.

Cayetano added the opposition’s evidence against Mrs. Arroyo "is so strong that there is no way for the complaint to go but to the Senate for trial."

Rep. Florencio Noel of party-list group An Waray said at least 60 opposition members and impeachment petitioners were willing to chip in to raise the P500,000 reward.

He said they are also asking friends and the public to contribute small sums, even a peso, toward the bounty.

"If we have a creeping impeachment, this is a creeping fund to produce Garcillano," he said.

The House of Representatives has ordered the arrest of Garcillano after five committees inquiring into Garcillano’s alleged phone conversations with Mrs. Arroyo cited him for contempt.

The former Comelec commissioner has not surfaced since the controversial recordings were revealed to the public.

Committee chairmen said Garcillano had mocked the legislature by ignoring three summonses to appear before their inquiry into the poll fraud allegations.

They have also asked the Bureau of Immigration to bar Garcillano from leaving the country, and the Department of Foreign Affairs to cancel his passport and have him repatriated if he is abroad. ABS-CBN television had reported that he might have already fled to London.

If Garcillano is indeed in Britain — or in Singapore, where he had reportedly first fled — it might be difficult to bring him back because the Philippines does not have extradition treaties with these countries, according to Auralyn Pascual, spokesman for the National Bureau of Investigation.

Garcillano was also reportedly sighted three days ago at one of the secluded beach resorts at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) freeport zone in Zambales.

A government employee, who requested not to be identified, told reporters yesterday that Garcillano was holed up in one of the posh houses in Cubi Point built in the late 1990s for heads of state attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit at the former US naval base.

Garcillano was reportedly accompanied by an unidentified woman.

SBMA officials were not immediately available for comment.

Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil said the Philippine National Police is already coordinating with the Department of Justice on the guidelines for implementing the arrest order.

Garcillano has denied any wrongdoing but dropped out of sight months ago.

The House committees are looking into wiretapped recordings of about 15 phone calls allegedly detailing Mrs. Arroyo and Garcillano discussing ways to ensure her victory in the May 2004 election, as well as restraining a potential witness to fraud and the political loyalties of military generals.

Military spokesman Navy Cmdr. Earl Pabalan said the alleged military involvement in vote rigging would be investigated. "Of course we will let the normal investigative proceedings take their course."

The allegations are part of an impeachment complaint filed in the House against Mrs. Arroyo. The complaint, to be deliberated by the House committee on justice next week, accuses Mrs. Arroyo of violating the Constitution, betraying public trust, corruption and bribery.

Opposition lawmakers have urged her to resign to avoid a painful Senate trial. Mrs. Arroyo has apologized for speaking to an election official before she was declared the winner, but denied manipulating the vote count.

The lawmakers have warned of unrest if Mrs. Arroyo’s allies in Congress use their numbers and legal maneuvers to spike the complaint. Massive "people power" revolts ousted former presidents Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye expressed confidence that Mrs. Arroyo would be cleared of the charges and stay in office.

"The tons of evidence they say they have are garbage. They would not stand up in court," he told dzXL radio.

Still grappling with the election fraud allegations, Mrs. Arroyo was recently accused by a new witness — former Palace aide Michaelangelo Zuce — of attending a meeting in her La Vista subdivision house in Quezon City where regional election officials were bribed ahead of last year’s ballot.

Mrs. Arroyo has angrily denied the new accusation, saying witnesses were being bribed to fabricate allegations against her "for a song."

Opposition lawyer Frank Chavez said former Isabela governor Faustino Dy, who also allegedly attended the January 2004 meeting, would come out soon to corroborate Zuce’s charges. — With AP, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jaime Laude, Raffy Viray, Evelyn Macairan