Perjury rap filed vs Garcillano

former Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Militant party-list House members on Wednesday filed a criminal complaint against former Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano for allegedly lying to Congress about not having gone to Singapore and for allegedly submitting a fake passport during the investigation into the alleged fraud in the 2004 polls.

In filing the complaint for perjury, falsification of documents and violation of the Passport Act and the code of conduct for public officials before the Office of the Ombudsman, Bayan Muna’s Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares cited Garcillano’s statements during the legislative inquiry into  the “Hello Garci” controversy.

The controversy stemmed from the alleged wiretapped conversation of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo where she was heard asking a “Garci” about keeping her lead in the 2004 presidential election. Arroyo later publicly apologized for talking to an election official before the winner was proclaimed, but did not name the official.

In their complaint, the party-list members noted that after initially failing to heed the House invitation to attend the inquiry in 2005, Garcillano showed up several months after and said he never left the country during the time of the invitation to appear before the inquiry.

Garcillano denied going to Singapore, despite a statement from the Singaporean government attesting to his arrival there on July 14, 2005. Casiño and Colmenares said he should be held liable for lying. Leila B. Salaverria

Originally posted at 05:18 pm | Wednesday, January 11, 2012