ISAFP agent’s ‘No. 3’ confirms wiretapping

A woman claimed yesterday that the "Hello, Garci" wiretaps came from the military’s intelligence arm which she said wiretapped President Arroyo’s phone conversations with former election official Virgilio Garcillano.

Testifying in a Senate committee inquiry on the six-month controversy, Marieta Santos corroborated the claim of a former deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation, Samuel Ong, that the audio recordings came from the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

She also confirmed that Mrs. Arroyo’s phone conversations were recorded by T/Sgt. Vidal Doble, who was earlier tagged as the wiretapper.

Santos, who has an extramarital relationship with Doble, named eight other military personnel who belonged to an ISAFP unit that reportedly spied on Mrs. Arroyo.

She claimed that she learned about the eavesdropping because she had regular access to the ISAFP headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo, including the so-called "blue room" where Mrs. Arroyo’s phone conversations were being recorded.

Santos said she came forward because she wanted to help Ong, whom Doble accuses of kidnapping him.

Ong has been in hiding since June after he presented to the media what he called the "mother of all tapes," which he said had been given to him by former ISAFP buddies.

Ong surfaced on Wednesday to give a media interview in an undisclosed location in which he contested Garcillano’s claim that Mrs. Arroyo won last year’s election fairly and that he was not involved in a conspiracy to help her rig the vote.

Ong, who faces arrest for kidnapping charges filed against him by Doble, has asked Congress for safe passage to air his side of the story.

"I saw Sammy Ong on TV and I felt pity for him because he was a victim of dirty tactics. I just want to help him because I know what happened," Santos told the Senate committee.

Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil said Ong will be arrested because the warrant still remains in effect.

"When he goes to the Senate and the warrant is in effect, elements of the Metro Manila police know what to do with it, that is to enforce the law," Bataoil said.

After nearly six months in hiding, Garcillano told an inquiry at the House of Representatives last Wednesday that he was not the official heard on the "Hello, Garci" tapes and that several other politicians, including a number from the opposition, had phone conversations with him during last year’s vote count.

Santos told the Senate committee inquiry, however, that she learned from Doble that his team, known as Military Intelligence Group 21 (MIG-21), was spying on Mrs. Arroyo’s phone conversations with Garcillano.

She said was a frequent visitor at MIG-21, which she said had four rooms. One of them was called the "blue room" where the wiretapping took place.

Santos identified the members of Doble’s team, including its commander, Lt. Col. Paul Sumayo. The others were identified merely as Capt. Rebong, Capt. Sagge, M/Sgt. Callos, M/Sgt. Belledo, T/Sgt. Abando, T/Sgt. Cando and one captain known only as "214."

Santos recalled that Doble took the "Hello, Garci" tapes from the MIG-21 quarters at the time when he was the duty officer. Doble told her that he and Ong’s driver, Angelito Santiago, were going to make the tapes public.

"Two persons were mentioned to me (as the voices on the tapes), Garcillano and President Arroyo," she told the Senate committee on defense and national security, chaired by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon a former Armed Forces chief.

The tapes were handed over to Santiago and later ended up with Ong.

Santos added that she listened to the tapes when they were played in her presence even before Ong made them public on June 10 at San Carlos Seminary, a Roman Catholic Church school for the priesthood in Makati City.

Santos said she accompanied Doble and his brother Reynaldo to Imperial Palace Suites and Hotel in Quezon City during the third week of May and met with Santiago and two Chinese-looking men.

There, Doble made a video statement admitting that he spied on Mrs. Arroyo’s phone conversations and detailing his reasons for coming forward.

The video statement was said to be Ong’s idea for the benefit of Bishop Teodoro Bacani because Ong planned to make the tapes public at San Carlos, where he hoped he would be safe from government reprisal. Doble also was holed up at San Carlos Seminary in Guadalupe, Makati City.

There, Santiago reportedly handed P2 million to Doble as a "birthday gift," according to Santos, but she admitted she did not personally witness any money changing hands.

She was given P70,000 and Doble’s brother and Santiago got P200,000 each.

Doble denies Ong’s story, claiming he was framed for the wiretapping. He claims that Ong kidnapped him and prevented him from leaving the seminary. Doble also claims he made the video statement under duress.

Ong went into hiding when the Catholic Church asked him to leave the seminary, saying he was disturbing studies there.

On June 5 — five days before Ong released the tapes — Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye released a pair of audio compact discs as part of a preemptive effort to counter expected opposition claims that Mrs. Arroyo had cheated in last year’s election.

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

Bunye later backtracked, however, saying he was not sure the voice on the recordings was Mrs. Arroyo. It was never made clear how he got hold of the CDs and some lawmakers want to question him about it. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe