MANILA, 11 June 2005 — A day after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared that she won fairly in last year’s election, a former official of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) surfaced yesterday to say he was the source of a wiretapped audio tape of the president talking about rigging the election.
Samuel Ong, who was fired as deputy director of NBI told a reporters that he got a master tape from military intelligence officers who said they were ordered to tap the phone of several people, including an official.
The tape provides proof that the president called the election official, identified as Commissioner Garcillano, at least 11 times in May-June 2004 after the election.
Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye had earlier claimed that tape was fake and part of a plot to grab power.
Ong did not play the tape that he waved around at a news conference but insists that Arroyo is in deep trouble. “The time for pretense is over,” he said. The tapes “will show you (Arroyo) have cheated your way to the presidency.”
Ong, who said he was dismissed from his job in December, delayed his news conference for six hours, claiming he feared for his life.
“I am dead meat,” he said. “They can throw the books at me ... and worse, they will even kill me.”
He appealed for support from Susan Roces, widow of actor Fernando Poe Jr., the opposition standard bearer and Arroyo’s closest rival. Poe died following a stroke in December.
“Join me in this quest for truth,” he said.
About 100 supporters of Poe, chanting “Gloria resign!” gathered outside a sports club where Ong spoke before he was whisked away in a heavily tinted van.
Roman Catholic priest Joe Dizon, who accompanied Ong, acknowledged that the former intelligence officer may have violated the law on wire tapping but claimed Arroyo committed “the higher crime ... of stealing the election.”
Armed forces deputy chief Rear Admiral Tirso Danga said the military intelligence agency “has no missing tapes and we do not hide tapes because it is not our job to wire tap.”
Bunye, said the president has not violated any law and is not charged with any crime.
“These detractors have no plan for the nation at all,” Bunye said. “We will not allow these ambitious, noisy and selfish few to destroy what we have already built for this country.”
Violent Protest
In a sign of heightening tensions, police clashed yesterday with left-wing protesters demanding Arroyo’s resignation for cheating and the alleged involvement of her family in illegal gambling payoffs.
At least 12 people were injured, including four officers, and three protesters were arrested, according to police and demonstrators.
Protesters carried placards reading: “Gloria, corrupt, resign now!” and “Punish Gloria, the cheat,” as they tried to push their way to Malaca?ang Palace.
Pushing and shoving from both sides later erupted into a clash and police used truncheons and water cannons to disperse the protesters, some of who were reported injured.
Expressions of Support
In a gathering with her supporters at the palace lasy night, Arroyo labeled her detractor “marauders of democracy” and vowed that her administration would “prevail.”
Some 1,000 leaders of the the administration party Lakas-Christian-Muslim Democrats, led by House Speaker Jose de Venecia, assured Arroyo of their continuing support and that they were for “constitutional democracy” and “that we are against any extra-constitutional or extra-legal moves or bring down this duly elected government.”
The United States’ top diplomat in the Philippines warned that political scandals hounding President Arroyo could have “a debilitating impact” on the country’s economy and stability.
While expressing confidence that electoral fraud and illegal gambling allegations against Arroyo and her family were not “fatal” to her government, US Embassy Charge d’Affaires Joseph Mussomeli said there were possible fallouts.
“This is very serious because it distracts people from the real problems that we should be dealing with,” he said. “The Filipino people deserve better than a steady diet of scandals.”
“This has a debilitating impact on your stability, on your progress economically,” he added. “There’s a lot of serious work to be done, from alleviating poverty to protecting children, protecting the environment and fighting corruption.”
The financial markets are already suffering from the controversies, with the peso falling to a three-month low against the US dollar and investors dumping stocks or staying on the sidelines for the past three days.
Mussomeli noted that while the allegations against Arroyo were raising tensions in the country, they were still “unsubstantiated” and do not pose a long-term threat.
“We just don’t think it’s fatal at all,” he said in a television interview of renewed accusations that Arroyo cheated in the May 2004 presidential elections. “We are not concerned that this administration is at risk.” (With input from The Associated Press and INS)
