Doble confirms anew Arroyo-Garcillano conversation

[Zeus]

Ex-military spy confirms anew Arroyo-Garcillano conversation



By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:21pm (Mla time) 08/21/2007


MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) A former member of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has confirmed the cell phone conversation between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano during the counting of votes in the May 2004 elections.
Technical Sergeant Vidal Doble Jr., whose video-taped testimony formed part of Senator Panfilo Lacson’s privileged speech, said he was part of the Military Intelligence Group 21 that also eavesdropped on opposition leaders Fernando Poe Jr., Horacio “Boy” Morales, Rez Cortez, cashiered Senator Gregorio Honasan, former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor, and members of the Magdalo Group, including now Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who led the shortlived mutiny last July 27, 2003.
Doble said his wife and two kids were kidnapped by the ISAFP just as he was about to expose the truth behind the scandal that had been dubbed as “Hello Garci.” He said his family stayed in the basement of the office of then AFP Chief Efren Abu from June 2005 to April 2006.
He said he himself was similarly kept in “restrictive custody” from June 2005 until his discharge in January 2007, when did not re-enlist.
With Vidal’s formal confirmation of the eavesdropping project, Lacson raised the “extremely alarming” specter of ISAFP playing Big Brother, “eavesdropping with ease on the conversations of whomsoever they choose, or whomsoever they are ordered to spy upon.”
“The targets of Project Lighthouse were not terrorists by any stretch of its definition…The intelligence project itself is a paradox. For it was not the lighthouse that we know, it was the lighthouse that brought darkness into this benighted land,” the senator said.
Questioned by lawyer Alex Abesado, Doble said Project Lighthouse consisted of 14 soldiers headed by Captain Frederick Rebong, who he claims is studying abroad. Other officials Doble named were Captain Paul Sumayo and Lindsey Recsan.
Doble said that of the four teams, he was with team two, headed by Master Sergeant Alex Villedo and Technical Sergeant Ariel Vitale. He said he himself was the team leader of the wire section of MIG21, ISAFP’s technical group, when he heard the conversation between the President and Garcillano.
Doble said he heard President Arroyo call Garcillano about the additional one million votes. He said he recorded the conversation, a copy of which he gave to Rebong while keeping the master tape with him.
He said he gave four more copies to Lito Santiago, an aide of former deputy director Samuel Ong of the National Bureau of Investigation.
Quoting Doble, Lacson detailed the steps involved in electronic eavesdropping: a cell phone conversation is coursed through a cell site of the service provider; the service provides splits the signal and relays it to a cell-phone unit that can record voice calls (“in this case, a Nokia 3600 programmed for the purpose by the service provider”); the conversation is recorded as a digital file to the duplicate cell phone’s memory card, and is transferred to a computer; the file is then transferred to a cassette, compact disc, or other media.
Lacson ad-libbed during his speech and warned fellow Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Manuel “Lito” Lapid against using the cell-phone to communicate with their “objects of interest.”
“Kaya sa inyo, Bong Revilla at Lito Lapid, mabuti pang personal na kausapin ang inyong kinalolokohan [It would be better if you personally talk to the object of your interests],” he said.
Lacson challenged Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who had called for a probe of the Hello Garci scandal, to be “instrumental in redeeming the Commission on Elections from its present image as a cheating machinery into a true guardian of democracy.”
He decried the use of the ISAFP, which “has been so debased by the political leadership …to thwart that sovereign will.”
“Truly nothing could be darker. Nothing could be more sinister,” he said.



Bubukas uli ang 'Hello Garci' investigation!

[chua_riwap]

Ho-huuuuummmmmmmm!

Wala bang bago?

[Monseratto]

Ilan beses na gustong buksan yan pero alam natin lahat na walang mangyayari diyan. Everyone is soooo tired of it already...

[oldblue]

buksan ulit boring eh hehehe

[empy]

baka naman doble-agent si Doble?


:hihihi:

[Zeus]

‘I heard Arroyo, Garci talk,’ says ex-sergeant
She asked about 1-M votes, claims ex-ISAFP agent

By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Inquirer
Last updated 01:12am (Mla time) 08/22/2007


MANILA, Philippines -- Saying he was no longer afraid, a former Army sergeant Tuesday broke his two-year silence, admitting that he and a group of soldiers had personally tapped the phone conversations of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and heard her ask former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano about “the additional 1 million votes” in the 2004 elections.
Former T/Sgt. Vidal Doble Jr., who used to be an Armed Forces intelligence agent, said in a video testimony presented in the Senate that he actually heard Ms Arroyo and Garcillano talking when he used a 3600 Nokia cell phone to tape their conversation.
“We were all surprised when PGMA called Garcillano and she was asking about the additional one million votes,” Doble said.
Doble said that fear for the safety of his family -- who he claimed was detained by the military in a basement -- made him keep quiet but now he could no longer appease his conscience.
“The Garci tapes are true. If they want, I can prove it. I have nothing to fear anymore. I am already a civilian. I just want this issue to end that has been bothering me inside,” Doble said in the video, where he was interviewed by a certain lawyer Alex Avisado.
The Garci tapes purportedly proved Ms Arroyo cheated the late Fernando Poe Jr. in the 2004 election with the help of Garcillano -- an accusation they both denied. Ms Arroyo posted a final winning margin of over 1 million votes.
Both Malacañang and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. declined immediate comment when asked for their reactions.
Doble broke into the news in June 2005 when he and his common-law wife sought refuge at the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City after it was reported that he had a copy of the recordings of Ms Arroyo’s phone talk with Garcillano.
He left the seminary and turned himself in after the military took custody of his wife and his children. Little was heard of him since -- until Tuesday when opposition Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson presented his video testimony during a privilege speech in the Senate.
Project Lighthouse
Doble’s testimony came more than two years after the scandal first broke and plunged the Arroyo presidency into its worst political crisis.
It provoked two unsuccessful impeachment attempts against Ms Arroyo in 2005 and 2006 and the resignations of 10 senior presidential advisers, plunged her approval ratings to a record low, and sparked coup plots which she eventually quashed.
For a time, it did not seem like Ms Arroyo would survive the crisis. But she did.
Fear for family
Doble, a former agent of the Military Intelligence Group-21 of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), revealed how the military formed a covert unit code-named “Project Lighthouse” to eavesdrop on both opposition and administration personalities in 2004 and how he was forced to keep silent on the issue.
“For two years and running, the country has been kept in the dark about the truth behind ‘Hello Garci’ because the man, who knew the conversations were illegally tapped for political and other purposes, could not speak out,” Lacson said.
“His family was kidnapped in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, brought to Manila, detained in the basement of the official residence of the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines inside Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, to which he himself was brought later. Thus was his silence guaranteed by the terror of fear for his family.”
Targets of wiretap
In the video, Doble, who was assigned to MIG 21 in March 1994, said Project Lighthouse was formed to monitor the phone conversations of several personalities, including Poe, former Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio Morales, actor Rez Cortez, Magdalo officers such as now Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Rafael Faeldon, Milo Maestrecampo, and Gerardo Gambala, Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, and former Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor -- and Garcillano.
Doble said the team was led by Col. Paul Sumayo (who has left the ISAFP), Capt. Frederick Rebong (who later went to school abroad), and Capt. Lindsay Rex Sumayo (who is still with the ISAFP).
Initially, Doble said he did not know that the man with the code name “Gary” was Garcillano, whom he came to know only after weeks of bugging his phone calls.
Master tape
Speaking about the conversation in which Ms Arroyo supposedly spoke about the “additional one million votes,” Doble said:
“At that time our team was on duty. We recorded it, gave the tape to Captain Rebong. The master tape was left with us. I gave four master tapes to Lito Santiago, an aide of former NBI Director Samuel Ong.”
Doble said he went straight to the San Carlos Seminary with Ong, who later spoke in a press conference about the so-called “master tapes” of the “Hello Garci” recordings.
But Doble said he was later surprised when he was picked up by Bishop Socrates Villegas and brought to Camp Aguinaldo to the quarters of former Chief of Staff General Efren Abu.
“I saw my two children and my wife detained in the basement of General Abu’s quarters. This is why I didn’t continue my exposé on the Garci tapes,” Doble said in Filipino.
Held from June ’05-April ’06
“My family was kept in custody from June 2005 to April 2006. I was there from June 2005 until I was discharged in February 2007. I did not reenlist.”
Asked why he waited two years to speak out, Doble said: “Because I saw that cheating was rampant in the May 14, 2007 election. Nothing changed since the May 2004 elections where there was cheating.”
Lacson presented a four-step process on how the wiretapping was done, “like Big Brother listening to conversations between Little Sister and an elections commissioner named Virgilio Garcillano.”

“It only takes a service provider willing to cooperate and conspire with whoever has knowledge in basic surveillance,” said Lacson. He did not identify the service provider.
With visual aids, Lacson guided the senators through the “crude” wiretap process employed by Project Lighthouse:
First, the conversation from Garcillano’s phone goes through the service provider’s or phone company’s main tower; second, the phone company splits the signal to relay the same call to the Nokia 3600 of Doble;
Third, Doble records the conversation on the unit’s removable memory card, which is pre-programmed to record conversations;
Finally, the digital file is transferred to a personal computer.
Lacson said Doble’s team had to transfer the recorded files constantly because they had no spare memory cards and recorded either in CD or audio cassette.
“The characters mentioned in the ‘Hello Garci’ tapes of 2005 have not been subjected to any proper investigation much less by the Comelec (Commission on Elections) itself. They have not been prosecuted for crimes against the sovereign electorate,” the senator added.
“They have remained in the woodwork of the Comelec and some of them have been promoted or reshuffled, the better to ensure that elections will remain unclean, dishonest and incredible,” Lacson said, citing Comelec officials Lintang Bedol, Lilian Radam and Ray Sumalipao.
Lacson challenged Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who has announced plans to reopen the Hello Garci case: “Mr. Commissioner, I am telling you now, we have Exhibit A in the person of Vidal Doble Jr. I challenge you to make good on your promise.”
Lacson also challenged Ms Arroyo to invoke Executive Order No. 464 barring her executives from appearing in congressional hearings without her consent.
“I challenge Malacañang to allow the truth to prevail. The Filipino people deserve nothing less,” said Lacson.
Aside from Doble who has committed to appear in a Senate investigation, Lacson said the committee would summon Abu, Bishop Villegas, Col. Paul Sumayo (head of Project Lighthouse), Capt. Rebong (who was Doble’s team head), and other members of Project Lighthouse.
Senate to probe
The Senate agreed to investigate Lacson’s claims as a committee of the whole.
The Senate only convenes as a committee of the whole on rare occasions and on a matter of utmost national importance. The committee is chaired by the Senate President.



Paano kaya kung bumaligtad si Garci at inamin na nandaya nga sila?

[niky]

As long as the opposition has no coherent plan in pursuing the impeachment case, and as long as Gloria maintains the tactical advantage in the courts, this won't get anywhere.

Not saying the case doesn't have any merit... I would like to see the involved parties brought to justice... but unless this is done properly, nothing will come of it.

[Hanren]

As usual, sa media na naman lumabas ...
intriguing....
boring na nga ang mga nakalipas na kabanata..this one promises to be another hohumm....

[FrankDrebin]

Wala na bang ibang balita? Nakakasawa na eh.

Bakit hindi na lang maghanap ng mga foreign investors ang favorite politician ng ibang Tsikoteers na si Sen. Panfilo Lacson para mas marami Pinoy ang makinabang? Blackmail, espionage at harrassment talaga ang expertise nito. Hehehe.

[Lucius]

Wala na bang ibang balita? Nakakasawa na eh.

Bakit hindi na lang maghanap ng mga foreign investors ang favorite politician ng ibang Tsikoteers na si Sen. Panfilo Lacson para mas marami Pinoy ang makinabang? Blackmail, espionage at harrassment talaga ang expertise nito. Hehehe.

Hehehe low-budget daw kasi eh compared to CIA -- di maganda daw gawan ng story