Palace stands by Defensor

Malacañang is standing by Environment Secretary Michael Defensor in his bid to defend President Arroyo, saying he has every right to present an expert’s opinion on whether the controversial recordings allegedly detailing Mrs. Arroyo’s wiretapped conversations were fabricated.

But Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita clarified Defensor’s evidence would only be part of the President’s defense and not necessarily the means to kill a looming impeachment complaint against her.

Both Ermita and Bunye said Mrs. Arroyo was ready to face the impeachment case and had even designated a legal panel and a spokesman for the matter.

They also said Defensor made the revelations on his own and without the blessings of the Palace.

"That is the position of one of our allies and friends, and we respect that. But I really think Secretary Defensor has a point as his explanations were based on the testimony and evaluation of an expert," Bunye said.

Defensor said on Friday that an "independent" analysis of the so-called "Hello, Garci" tapes by an American firm showed the recordings were digitally altered, and thus the impeachment complaint should be thrown out.

Bunye was more circumspect, however. "So far, all the tapes presented were without the benefit of expert evaluation. I suppose this is the first time that there was an expert evaluation on a particular piece of evidence."

He noted "there was nothing irregular or abnormal about what Secretary Defensor has done. It could even help in the resolution of the case."

In a press conference last Friday, Defensor said Mrs. Arroyo could ask the House of Representatives to throw out the impeachment complaint against her for allegedly cheating in last year’s presidential election.

Malacañang will present to the House committee on justice a technical analysis of the audio recordings allegedly detailing Mrs. Arroyo’s phone conversations with an election official to prove that they had been "spliced," he said.

Ermita said Defensor merely wanted to air the Arroyo camp’s side of the issue. "We cannot take that away from him, he is only doing what he thinks is right to straighten out the reports that came out earlier."

He even dared Defensor’s critics to talk to American expert Barry Dickey, who was hired to analyze the recordings and determine their authenticity, to find out for themselves if Defensor’s claims were true.

Ermita said it might be a good idea to invite Dickey to Manila to explain his findings. "The people only believe an expert’s explanation. So we won’t have to debate on whoever is right or wrong, let the people make the judgment after that," he said.

Ermita debunked claims the Palace was so desperate to stop impending impeachment hearings it had resorted to a belated expert evaluation. "The President’s political opponents will always criticize the moves of officials identified with her. That is normal," he said.

At the press conference, Defensor said while it was possible that the voice heard on the tapes was Mrs. Arroyo’s, bits and pieces of different telephone conversations she had with other people could have been digitally manipulated to give the impression that the voices were conspiring to rig the May 2004 presidential vote.

He said the recordings were produced by "electronic and digital manipulation to link the President to cheating and rigging."

Unless the opposition lawmakers sponsoring the case can prove that the tapes were not tampered with, "then the impeachment complaint should be thrown out," Defensor said.

Defensor disclosed that a copy of the tape was sent to Dickey, an American expert on sound analysis, to determine the recording’s authenticity.

Dickey is a forensic expert of Audio Evidence Lab, a Texas company that specializes in analyzing audio and video evidence.

Dickey had verified a videotape of Saudi terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaeda leader exhorted Muslims around the world to declare a "holy war" on the United States.

Administration lawmakers said Dickey’s findings proved that the opposition was out to topple Mrs. Arroyo. "We now have a clear smoking gun that the core piece of evidence being peddled by the opposition to force her impeachment was actually a product of malicious science," said Paranaque Rep. Eduardo Zialcita.

Zialcita alleged that the opposition "fabricated to paint a picture of complicity on Mrs. Arroyo’s part when there was none."

Bacolod City Rep. Monico Puentevella said the findings "vindicated" Mrs. Arroyo of fraud allegations in the May 2004 presidential race.

"I erred — we are facing not just a Philippine Witness Academy but an entire Philippine Cheating University churning out perjuring witnesses and manufactured evidence like all these Garci tapes," he said in a statement issued to the press.

Puentevella said it was clear that the opposition objective was to "cheat the President and our people out of the mandate to govern."

"Their manner of cheating is even more advanced, because this entails doing away with the entire electoral process itself and (is) an outright power grab through black propaganda and a twisting of our legal and political processes," he added.

The alleged wiretapped audio recordings are the central evidence of the impeachment complaint lodged by opposition congressmen in the House.

Opposition lawmakers who sponsored the complaint said they would resign from the House if the audio recordings were proven to be inauthentic.

That prompted House Deputy Speaker Gerry Salapuddin to remind them their resignation would be tantamount to abandonment of duty. "As members of Congress they were elected as representatives of their constituents," he said.

On June 5, Malacañang announced there was a fresh attempt to destabilize the administration with renewed accusations that Mrs. Arroyo had fixed the results of last year’s presidential election.

Press Secretary Bunye released a pair of CD recordings the following day as part of a preemptive effort to counter the expected poll fraud claims.

The opposition had widely been expected to release copies of the audio recordings, in which Mrs. Arroyo appeared to press for a million-vote margin over rival and action film actor Fernando Poe Jr.

Poe had accused Mrs. Arroyo of robbing him of victory but his electoral protest was junked by the Supreme Court shortly after he died in December of a stroke.

In a news conference Bunye played two CDs for reporters, one which he claimed was a wiretapped cell phone call between Mrs. Arroyo and an election official known only as "Gary," and the other that he claimed used snippets of that call spliced with the voice of a fake Commission on Elections official.

In July, Mrs. Arroyo apologized to the nation for what she described as an improper telephone call to an unidentified election official before Congress could proclaim the winner of the election.

However, she insisted she committed no crime and has refused to resign, urging critics to channel their complaints through the impeachment proceedings.

The opposition has also raised other issues in its impeachment complaint, including allegations that Mrs. Arroyo’s family was on the payroll of illegal gambling barons and that Mrs. Arroyo had allegedly engaged in anomalous contracts. — With Delon Porcalla