EDITORIAL - One step forward

After a protracted silence that everyone inevitably associated with guilt, President Arroyo finally spoke up the other night about controversial recordings of wiretapped conversations. Addressing the nation in a live telecast, the President confirmed that she had indeed spoken to an official of the Commission on Elections before she was proclaimed winner in the presidential race last year. The conversations were tapped and recorded.

Apologizing to the nation for the impropriety of the conversations, the President emphasized that she had not tried to cheat her way to victory, and that the phone conversations in no way altered the results of the presidential race. She was taking full responsibility, she said, for her lapse of judgment. Significantly, she never identified the Comelec official in the controversial tapes. The official, widely believed to be Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, has disappeared. Perhaps the President’s apology and admission could be his cue to emerge from hiding and talk.

There are still many loose ends in this story, and Garcillano’s version is eagerly awaited by a nation hungry for the truth. While President Arroyo scored some points with her plea for forgiveness, she is not yet out of the woods. Her "lapse of judgment" can still be used as a basis for her impeachment.

At the same time, the nation wants to know who tapped the conversations, and why. Anyone with the capability to intercept mobile phone conversations of the President of the Republic or a Comelec commissioner, and uses the capability illegally, poses a threat to a democratic way of life.

The wiretapping was illegal and those involved must be punished. And while the nation is grateful to those who blew the whistle on the taped conversations, anyone who violated the law against illegal wiretapping, including former National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Samuel Ong, must be prosecuted. If the circumstances mitigate his violation of the law and he deserves leniency, it will be up to the judiciary to decide. But first he must submit himself to the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system.

President Arroyo’s belated admission is a step forward, and it should not be followed with two steps backward to suppress the truth or thwart the rule of law.