ZAMBOANGA CITY, 28 November 2005 — After months in hiding, disgraced Philippine poll official Virgilio Garcillano admitted in a television interview that he spoke with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo about last year’s national election but denied rigging the votes for her.

“I tell you and I swear that there was no such thing as rigging in last year’s elections,” Garcillano said in a clandestine interview aired by ABS-CBN yesterday.

Garcillano said their wire-tapped conversation about the one-million-vote lead of Arroyo was done after the votes had been counted. “The president was asking why her advantage over FPJ (Fernando Poe Jr.) had been reduced to 892,000. That was (on) May 24. We were talking of the votes already counted, so how can we rig the elections?” he said in a portion of the ABS-CBN interview.

He said he is willing to face a Senate inquiry to deny the charges against him.

The report did not say where the interview took place. A television footage showed him wearing a traditional Muslim scarf over his head. He was seated next to an unidentified man while talking to reporter Henry Umaga Diaz.

Garcillano said he went into hiding after receiving threats on his life when tapes of his wiretapped phone conversations with the president and other officials were leaked to the public by the opposition in June.

He said that he felt it was no longer safe to be visible in public since he was implicated in manipulation of votes as suggested in his alleged conversations with Arroyo during canvassing time last year.

“I had been followed everywhere since the controversial alleged taped conversation came out. In fact, some were saying I could already be dead,” he added.

In the tapes, the president was heard repeatedly calling Garcillano. Her infamous “Hello Garci” call has become a butt of jokes and even circulated as a ringtone for cell phones.

Arroyo has apologized for a “lapse in judgment,” by speaking to an unnamed election official before the votes were tallied but she has denied cheating.

Her qualified apology sparked resignations of key Cabinet members in July and a number of key allies including ex-President Corazon Aquino and some business leaders urged her to step down.

Opposition legislators summoned Garcillano to testify against Arroyo in an impeachment case, which she survived in September, but the former election official disappeared, possibly going overseas, as soon as the tapes surfaced.

Arroyo’s supporters say his return could provide the necessary closure to the monthslong political crisis. Opposition politicians said they expected Garcillano to deny all charges that would implicate him and Arroyo.

Denials

The interview came as military and police officials were busy denying reports about Garcillano’s return to Mindanao. There were persistent reports that Garcillano was in Cotabato City, 940 kilometers southwest of Manila or 240 km west of Zamboanga City.

Garcillano’s wife, Grace, said earlier that her husband is in an undisclosed place in Mindanao and would soon surface to deny all allegations against him.

Former senator Francisco Tatad was earlier quoted by the local media as saying Garcillano was spotted on Nov. 23 in the southern province of Zamboanga Sibugay with Jose Miguel Arroyo, the president’s husband, and several politicians and poll officials.

Tatad said the ex-poll commissioner returned on Nov. 18 to the country through the southern backdoor from Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia after months of hiding in the United States.

But the official line of the military and police was that there was no sighting of the former commissioner.

“That’s not true. We would have nabbed Garcillano if he was in really Cotabato or in places nearby, but he never been here,” said Lt. Col. Franklin del Prado, a spokesman for the military in Central Mindanao.

Tatad maintained that Garcillano stayed in Metro Ipil Mandarin and Sibugay hotels in Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay province and allegedly met with Arroyo and Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, governor of the ARMM, and Pacung Mangundadatu, governor of Sultan Kudarat province.

Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in the Muslim autonomous region are only two provinces where massive cheating in last year’s elections were reported.

Mangundadatu and Arroyo have, however, denied meeting with Garcillano.

Ampatuan did not answer phone calls and his spokesmen have not issued any statement.

Tatad said Garcillano also stayed in hotels in Zamboanga City, Pagadian and Cagayan de Oro and have been hiding from one place to another.

A check with some of the hotels showed no name of having checked in.

Tatad insists that he has documents detailing Garcillano’s activities from the day he went into hiding until he returned to the country and has a witness who is willing to testify about his information

Lacson Wants Him Alive

In Manila, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson yesterday denied being “after” Garcillano.

In a phone interview, Lacson said he is “the last person who would want to harm Garcillano. I want him alive and talking and telling the truth.”

“I was a candidate in the last elections and I want to know what happened,” he said.

Lacson was reacting to television interview in which Garcillano said he had received information that Lacson’s men were after him.

Garcillano said he received information from Cavite governor Ireneo “Ayong” Maliksi, a supporter of Lacson in the 2004 election, that the senator’s men were after him.

“Not long after the spurious tapes were released I received phone cals from governor (Ireneo) Ayong Maliksi of Cavite who informed me that (Senator Panfilo) “Ping” Lacson’s people were looking for me,” Garcillano said in a television interview, his first since went into hiding.

“Knowing the reputation and capability of Senator Lacson, I thought it was best for me to withdraw from the public eye,” he said.

Lacson said Garcillano’s allegations that the last elections were not rigged and that he never left the country are impossible to believe. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore gave the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) a note verbale saying that he indeed was there. How can we believe anything he says now? It is all part of the script,” the senator said.

In case Garcillano shows up for any investigation where he would tell all, Lacson promised that he “will secure him.” (Additional input from Inquirer News Service & agencies)