Joey petitions SC for writ of habeas data to stop wiretapping of military, police

MANILA, Philippines – Businessman Jose de Venecia III yesterday petitioned the Supreme Court to grant him a writ of habeas data that would compel the military and police to stop the alleged wiretapping of his telephones.

In his 17-page petition, De Venecia, son of former House speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., said he received reliable information that agents of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been monitoring his movements and tapping calls on his telephones and cellular phones in his house and office.

De Venecia, in his petition, said he did not doubt the capability of the AFP, the PNP and ISAFP to conduct wiretapping operations.

Tagged as respondents in the petition were Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, PNP chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr., the ISAFP, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos and other John and Jane Does.

De Venecia said that sometime last month, he got information that a recording of a supposed wiretapped conversation between himself and Senate witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. was uploaded on the YouTube website.

De Venecia said that he then recalled the threat made against him by Abalos to have his telephones tapped.

De Venecia said the wiretapping of his telephones was first disclosed during the Senate hearing last March 11 on the $329-million national broadband network (NBN) contract between the government and ZTE Corp. of China.

During the course of the questioning of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, De Venecia found out that Lacson was referring to a supposed wiretapped conversation between him and Abalos which was also uploaded on YouTube.

In that same hearing, De Venecia said Enrile questioned him about several telephone conversations he had made with other persons. Thereafter, Enrile threatened to broadcast the supposed recorded conversations.

“Respondent Enrile publicly confronted petitioner regarding statements that the latter purportedly made in the course of various telephone conversations.

“Respondent Senator Enrile further made mention and invoked as his source a supposed taped recording of such conversations.

“Worse, in the course of the Senate hearing of 11 March 2008, he threatened to publicly air the purported tape recordings of wiretapped telephone conversations involving petitioner. These acts of Senator Enrile constitute violations of Republic Act 4200, otherwise known as the Anti-Wiretapping Act,” De Venecia said in his petition.

“Respondents’ collective actions constitute unwarranted intrusions on petitioner’s right to security and privacy. It should be noted that the circulation of the supposed wiretapped materials purportedly bearing petitioner’s conversations with other persons signifies the blatant and unjustified incursion on petitioner’s private communication,” De Venecia added.

In asking for the writ of habeas data, De Venecia is asking the Court to compel the respondents to produce all materials obtained through the wiretapping of his telephones, including recordings and transcripts in their possession. He also asked the Court to order the respondents to stop the harassment and surveillance against him.

Talking to reporters after the filing of his petition, De Venecia said the wiretapping of his phones is part of a plan to discredit him.

“The strategy of the government, or the bad people in government in this transaction, is really to discredit me because I am the whistleblower. If they discredit me, the other witnesses will not be credible, who’s telling the truth. We expect them to continue doing this and it’s very expensive to wiretap a cellular phone conversation. That is why I am referring to the government who has the capability to do this,” he said.

De Venecia said that though the supposed wiretapping has boosted his credibility as a witness in the NBN-ZTE deal, he would not use it to his advantage as wiretapping is illegal.

“Wiretapping is illegal whether it is good for me or bad for me. I refuse to use any of these tapes because they are all illegal,” he said.

Meanwhile, as he was asking the Court to grant him protection from harassment, De Venecia harassed some reporters covering the filing of his petition at the Supreme Court.

A photojournalist of the Manila Standard Today, in particular, apparently irked De Venecia when he tried to get a copy of his press statement.

De Venecia, looking at the press identification card of the photojournalist, said: “Taga-Standard ka pala. Kay Ricky Razon ka. I will not talk to you.”

A cameraman of RPN Channel 9 also got De Venecia’s ire when the latter saw his press ID and commented: “RPN 9, gobyerno ka rin ah.”

De Venecia then started to look at the IDs of the reporters covering the affair and asked the newsmen which agency they belonged to before answering questions.