Someone posed as Garci in Singapore?

Perhaps it was all a wild goose chase, complete with stunt doubles.

"Maybe somebody posed as Garcillano, declared himself as Garcillano, who passed by Singapore to mislead the government," Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez conjectured yesterday.

"Somebody just assumed Garcillano’s name and got himself recorded in Singapore. The Singaporean government could also have been given a runaround," Gonzalez said.

These were Gonzalez’s comments in a telephone interview as he asked former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano to prove that he did not leave the country on July 14.

The Singaporean government earlier issued a certification to prove that Garcillano arrived in the island-state on July 14 via a chartered flight from the Subic freeport in, Zambales.

"There is a discrepancy between the certification issued by Singaporean authorities and Garcillano," Gonzalez said, noting the former election commissioner’s denial that he left the country during his five-month absence. "That must be reconciled by Garcillano. It is his word against the certification of the Singaporean authorities."

A Filipino diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Garcillano’s arrival in and departure from Singapore were properly documented by immigration authorities there, adding that it was surprising for Garcillano to claim in interviews that he never left the Philippines.

The diplomat said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) stands by the information it furnished the House committee on public information then chaired by Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla that Garcillano’s entry into Singapore was mentioned in the note verbale sent by the Singapore foreign ministry through the Philippine embassy in Singapore.

Garcillano, the source concluded, "is lying. He cannot claim that he did not leave the country because there are documents that will show he entered Singapore. His entry into Singapore is properly documented."

The diplomat also said the Philippine embassy in Singapore confirmed that Garcillano arrived in the city-state and stayed there overnight, but that Singapore’s immigration authorities have no record of Garcillano’s next destination upon departing from Singapore on July 15.

"That cannot be retracted," the diplomat said. "It is fully documented, so he cannot claim that he did not leave the country."

Gonzalez said Garcillano may be held accountable for the incident if it is proven that he conspired with other people to make it appear as if he left the Philippines on July 14 for Singapore to avoid testifying before five committees in the House of Representatives, which were investigating the controversial "Hello, Garci" wiretap recordings.

The recordings allegedly contain a conversation between President Arroyo and a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official believed to be Garcillano on efforts to rig the May 10, 2004 presidential election.

Under the Revised Penal Code, Gonzalez said, any person who pretended to be Garcillano could be held liable for using Garcillano’s identity and "Garcillano can be held liable for that if it can be proven that he conspired with these people."

Gonzalez said it must first be established whether or not Garcillano left the country on July 14.

"It will really depend on (Garcillano’s) credibility in whatever evidence there is," he said. "There is one document that says he went to Singapore. It was coursed through diplomatic channels. It was endorsed to us by the Department of Foreign Affairs. We can determine that by looking at his reputation, his statement itself, whether the statement has the ring of truth and because of that you can impeach whatever he said."

Gonzalez, however, admitted there is no way to determine the truth of Garcillano’s claims and downplayed the use of a polygraph or lie detector examination to determine whether or not the election official is lying.

"A lie detector test is not admissible in court," he said. "We will still give (Garcillano) the benefit of the doubt."

Disgruntled career diplomats at the DFA earlier said Garcillano had arrived in Singapore and proceeded to Brazil and Malaysia before returning to the Philippines.

In its web log, the Union of Foreign Service Officers (Uniffors) hinted that Garcillano left and returned to the country using a fake passport, then used a private jet to fly to Singapore after the wiretapping controversy hit the headlines.

"We welcome the return of Garcillano," the Uniffors weblog reads. "Let’s hope he will allow himself to be cross-examined. Let’s wait for him to tell us how he got out of the country, the countries he visited and how he got back. He can tell us who arranged his trip on a private jet to Singapore and how he got to Brazil and then to Malaysia and back to Cagayan de Oro last weekend. Did he take the same private jet home? Did he use a fake passport? Did he take a vinta (sailboat) from Sabah? Let’s hope Garci’s coaches can think of all the questions he will be asked and pray he won’t trip on his lies."

The Uniffors weblog also likened the "cover-up" of Garcillano’s disappearance and reappearance to the Watergate scandal of the United States.

They said the incident perverts the entire law enforcement system, from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to the DFA and the Bureau of Investigation.

Garcillano granted interviews to a television station and print media journalists over the weekend, the first such interview since the wiretapping scandal made the news.

Uniffors also said in its web log that telephone bills and records of overseas calls made by DFA and Malacañang officials to embassy officials can be checked against this information to reveal where Garcillano stayed and the duration of his stay in every country he allegedly visited after dropping out of sight in July.

Meanwhile, DFA Undersecretary for administration Franklin Ebdalin said the information contained in the note verbale from the Singaporean Foreign Ministry and the embassy report to the DFA regarding Garcillano’s arrival in Singapore is the same information he gave before the congressional inquiry that probed the "Hello, Garci" scandal.

"My only role is to convey to Congress the information given by Singapore through our Philippine embassy in Singapore that Garcillano landed there," Ebdalin said. "I’m just the messenger, not the message."

Ebdalin said this in reaction to the Uniffors statement that Ebdalin was asked by Malacañang to sit on the information from the Singaporean Foreign Ministry instead of immediately revealing Garcillano’s whereabouts. — Jose Rodel Clapano, Pia Lee- Brago