Bunye, Gonzales defy Senate subpoena on ‘Garci’ probe

Senators will meet to decide whether to cite for contempt three Cabinet and five military officials who have ignored summons from the Senate to appear before a hearing on the “Hello, Garci” case.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, national defense committee chairman, said the committee has to get the majority vote of the entire Senate before any Cabinet official can be cited for contempt by the Senate.

The Senate voted yesterday to go on recess on Oct. 3, ahead of its schedule of Oct. 13.

The Senate’s subpoena duces tecum were ignored by Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, and Undersecretary Remedios Poblador of the Presidential-Legislative Liaison Office.

Also absent were retired Armed Forces chief Efren Abu, retired military vice chief of staff Tirso Danga, Col. Paul Sumayo, and Captains Frederick Rebong and Lindsay Sagge.

“We have established one thing here – that there was wiretapping and that it is most probably done by ISAFP,” said Biazon.

During the hearing, the credibility of retired military intelligence agent Vidal Doble Jr. was again placed in question when Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile presented two marriage certificates of Doble to two different women.

“I did not ask for these (documents),” Enrile told Doble.

“These were sent to me by your wife. I did not ask for them. I don’t want to sow intrigues.”

In response, Doble invoked his right against self-incrimination.

Enrile said that Doble erred when he did not tell the committee that he had married a second woman.

“These show to this committee that (this witness) cannot be relied upon,” Enrile said.

However, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said being married twice does not make Doble a less credible witness.

Biazon said the committee will determine the relevance of Doble’s two marriages after considering all the evidence regarding the wiretap probe.

At yesterday’s hearing, Doble identified the tapes presented by Biazon as the same tapes he handed to one Lito Santiago, who gave it to former National Bureau of Investigation official Samuel Ong for safekeeping at the height of the “Hello, Garci” controversy in 2005.

“I have no contact with Samuel Ong,” he said. “This transmittal was done through a messenger.”

Biazon said the joint panel will have to study further the aspect on electoral fraud and wrongdoing of public officials.

“As far as the defense committee is concerned, we have sufficient information to come to a conclusion, except for the fact that we need to hold responsible the superiors of Technical Sergeant Doble who ordered the commission of an illegal act,” he said.

Biazon said he has filed a bill seeking the control and regulation of the sale, use, possession and purchase of wiretap equipment.

“The tapes here are relevant in its essence,” he said.

“But if we expand the concern, beyond national security, like cheating, like public officials committing wrongdoing, then there may be a need to listen to the tapes. Whether we listen to the tapes (or not), that is another issue.”

Sen. Alan Cayetano, joint Senate panel co-chairman and Blue Ribbon committee chairman, said the best the Senate panel can do is to recommend that the personalities linked to the controversy be held liable for their actions.

“Nobody was slapped with charges in the ‘Hello, Garci’ scandal,” he said.

“Neither, it seems, will somebody be charged in the ‘Hello, Neri’ case wherein the President was told about an alleged P200-million bribe.”

“One aspect of the hearing that we should look into is the culpability of those who knew about the issues but they are not charged for anything at all.”

Doble did not discount the presumption that wiretapped tapes containing personal conversations might be used for blackmail.

Upon questioning by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Doble said about 10 employees of telecommunications companies received P20,000 monthly allowance during the Project Lighthouse wiretapping operations.

These “agents” were also covered by mission orders and permits to carry firearms outside of residence, he added.

Doble said his superiors at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) have at least 10 civilian assets in the telecommunications companies Globe and Smart.

The civilian assets were recruited by his superiors Sumayo and Rebong, he added.

Doble said ISAFP would not be able to wiretap cellphones without the help of civilians within the two telecommunications firms.

During his stint at the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force under Lacson, they used a high-tech wiretapping device from Germany, he added.

Doble said he could not name the civilian agents, but that he has a copy of their roster.

He will give Lacson the list once he finds it, he added.

Rebong and Sumayo ordered them to monitor the conversations of some target numbers, Doble said.

Esperon stops testimony 

Sumayo and Rebong were not allowed to appear yesterday before the Senate inquiry on the “Hello, Garci” recordings to protect the military from the testimony of Doble, who has “no regard for operational matters,” Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said yesterday.

Esperon said the AFP is weighing the legal implications and the operational implications of the appearance of Sumayo and Rebong in the Senate investigation.

Esperon said the AFP would, for the meantime, keep away from the Senate hearing.

“We have some legal concerns on that, as I said we will continue to weigh matters so that we could serve the bigger purposes. We are considering that but as of now we have orders, we will not appear,” he said.

Esperon said the AFP can invoke executive privilege to stop retired military intelligence chief Tirso Danga from testifying before the Senate.  

“There are indeed operational matters that he has been through as ISAFP chief so we can avail of that, we can avail of executive privilege in the case of Admiral Danga… because he was the intelligence chief so there are things that we have to protect in our operations, there are things that we have to safeguard,” he said.

Danga, now a special assistant to National Security Adviser Gonzales, requires him to keep certain things within the confines of the military organization, Esperon said.   – With James Mananghaya