JDV wants Garci committees to finish probe before holidays

DAGUPAN CITY — Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. wants the five committees at the House of Representatives tasked to hear the so-called "Hello, Garci" tapes to submit their reports before the Christmas holidays to allow lawmakers to attend to other important matters.

"I don’t want to influence their decision one way or the other," he said. "This is precisely what open public hearings are all about."

De Venecia said Congress has to finish next year’s proposed national budget, go through proposed amendments to the Constitution, and pass the Anti-Terrorism Bill before Christmas. "Otherwise it will spill over into January and that is something that’s not desirable," he said.

De Venecia said perceived doubts over President Arroyo’s victory in the 2004 elections were resolved a long time ago, except for the occasional burst of black propaganda.

The remaining point of argument is the phone call between Mrs. Arroyo and former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, he added.

De Venecia said: "It appears that the administration and opposition have been calling and talking to Garcillano, and unless they themselves will tell us what they talked about, we’ll never know whether wrongdoing was committed or not."

He added: "It will now depend on their respective consciences whether there was wrongdoing in the conversations or not."

De Venecia said if Garcillano had not surfaced, "people would say the government or the administration is hiding him or shielding him and does not want him to come back so he could not tell the truth."

"This is what has been demanded by the opposition all these months," he said. "Now that he is here, they also continue to denigrate him."

De Venecia said there are "pluses and minuses" in his reappearance "but by and large, the pluses should be more than the minuses because at least they know that he has come home, agreed to face the problem, agreed to face the Senate and the House, agreed to face the media."

"They should ask all the questions they can and get as much answers from him as possible," he said.

"Hopefully we should be able to write finish to this issue but it’s up to the five committees to make that determination."

Meanwhile, former President Fidel Ramos said it was good that Garcillano had testified before Congress so the truth would come out.

"He should tell it exactly how it happened because the greatest interest of our people is for the truth to come out," he said.

Speaking Thursday night before boarding a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong en route to the United Kingdom, Ramos said: "And whoever must suffer from the revelations of the truth, well, that’s his or her destiny."

Although he had not seen or read reports about Garcillano’s testimony, Ramos added he hopes that Garcillano would continue with his testimony until the entire truth comes out.

Ramos will co-chair the three-day inaugural meeting of the Emerging Markets Forum in the UK. From the UK, FVR is scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to attend the three-day meeting of the Eminent Persons Group.

Commenting on the recent spate of bombings and strafing of the LTA building in Makati City owned by the family of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, the former president said the timing of the events tended to suggest they were "contrived."

"The series of bombings (seem) contrived to make it appear that the Philippines is deteriorating and plunging into a worse condition than it really is," he said.

However, Ramos said he does not think the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces had a hand in the incidents. "Drama lang siguro ito (It could have been set up)," he said. "As to who contrived it, I would not fault the PNP or AFP for having done it. They are professionals and constitutional servants."

Ramos said while he thinks the PNP and AFP were not involved in the incidents, they should get to the bottom of the strafing of the Arroyo-owned building.

On recent moves to change the Constitution, Ramos said he believes the initiative has already gained momentum, and the Senate has begun to reconsider its former hard-line stance against "Cha-cha."

"It has been dragging but I think it has already gained its own momentum," he said in a press conference at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal I before boarding his flight. — Eva Visperas, Rainier Allan Ronda