Garci seen twice in Bataan town?

Former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, now the subject of a police manhunt, was reportedly sighted recently in Morong, Bataan a few days ago.

That prompted the local police to check resorts and vacation houses in the area. But the Armed Forces is not about to join the hunt for Garcillano, referring the matter instead to the Judge Advocate General.

Garcillano was reportedly seen last week and in early July with two men and a Caucasian woman boarding a car in town. They were reportedly staying on a secluded island off Morong, according to Superintendent Arnold Gunnacao, the deputy police director for operation in the province.

Senior Superintendent Hernando Zafra, the provincial police chief, has ordered intelligence officers to check the over 30 beach resorts and vacation houses in town.

Garcillano might be considering Morong as an exit point to leave the country because of its geographic proximity to Subic Bay in Zambales, Gunnacao said.

Police are working with security personnel of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority after Garcillano reportedly had been sighted earlier in one of the villas built for heads of states attending the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held at the former US naval base in the 1990s.

Police are also checking resorts in nearby Bagac town.

AFP information chief Lt. Col. Buneventura Pascual said the request by Congress for military assistance to track down Garcillano is still under study.

"We have forwarded the request to the TJAG (The Judge Advocate General) for legal opinion (to determine) if the Armed Forces is authorized to perform such task," Pascual told reporters.

Last week, House sergeant-at-arms retired General Bayani Fabic forwarded the request to Armed Forces chief Gen. Efren Abu asking the military to assist other law enforcement agencies in tracking down the former Comelec official.

Opposition congressmen and impeachment petitioners are offering at least half a million pesos in reward money to anyone who can lead authorities to the elusive Garcillano.

The Bureau of Immigration has issued a hold-departure order against him.

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

A warrant of arrest signed by Speaker Jose de Venecia ordered Fabic to produce Garcillano for his continued defiance to appear before the joint hearing of the committees on public Information, Public Order and Safety, National Defense and Security, information and communicationstechnology, and suffrage and electoral reforms.

Committee chairmen said Garcillano repeatedly 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 requested that the Department of Foreign Affairs cancel his passport and have him repatriated if he is already abroad.

ABS-CBN television had reported that Garcillano could have fled to Singapore before going to London, two locations that have no extradition treaties with the Philippines.

Efforts to extradite Garcillano — if he is indeed abroad — may be limited to eight countries that the Philippines has extradition treaties with. These are Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Switzerland, Thailand and the United States.

However, the National Bureau of Investigation could at least locate Garcillano with help from Interpol, according to an NBI spokeswoman Auralyn Pascual.

"We will also file an application to the NBI Interpol to include Garcillano in the list of persons with red notice, or the list of wanted persons. So even if we may not have an extradition treaty with other countries, he would be included in the Interpol list," she said.

Fabic’s request stipulated that the warrant be served to the former election official wherever he might be, including at Unit 904 Gotesco Towers condominium in Manila; at RER Subdivision in Cagayan de Oro; or at the Municipality of Baungon in Bukidnon.

The House committees are looking into wiretapped recordings of about 15 phone discussions allegedly between Mrs. Arroyo and Garcillano about ensuring her win in the May 2004 election.

Garcillano has been missing since last May when the controversy broke out, and he has been largely unheard from except for a phone interview with a broadsheet and a curt denial from his Comelec office.

The allegations are part of an impeachment complaint filed in the House against Mrs. Arroyo. The complaint, to be considered 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 quash the complaint. Massive "people power" revolts have ousted Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001.

Adding to the election fraud allegations, Mrs. Arroyo was accused last week by former Palace staffer Michaelangelo Zuce of allegedly attending a meeting in her upscale Quezon City house where regional election officials were bribed ahead of last year’s ballot.

Mrs. Arroyo angrily denied the charge, saying witnesses were being bribed to fabricate allegations against her "for a song." — With Jaime Laude, Evelyn Macairan