‘Hello Garci’ probe not a priority, says Comelec chief

Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes said he would not prioritize a new probe of the “Hello Garci” scandal and the Comelec officials involved in the 2004 poll controversy.

“That (Hello Garci issue) is not my priority. I was not here yet [at the Comelec] when it happened. Why should it boil down to that issue again?” Brillantes told reporters.

The Comelec chief was asked to elaborate on his recent statement before the Commission on Appointments (CA) where one member, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, called for a reinvestigation of the election scandal and of those involved.

Brillantes said he told the CA members that while he should not be pressed into investigating the scandal, he was always ready to conduct a new probe subject to due process and valid evidence.

“I’m now being forced to dig up this issue. What I said [to the CA] was: I will investigate but it’s not my priority,” said Brillantes, who was President Aquino’s election lawyer during the May 2010 national elections.

The “Hello Garci” scandal involved allegedly wiretapped telephone conversations between then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and then Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano about her vote margins in the 2004 presidential election.

Her closest rival, the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., through his election lawyer Brillantes, filed suit in the Supreme Court challenging Arroyo’s victory. However, the case was quashed after Poe’s sudden death.

Brillantes, whose confirmation has been bypassed twice by the CA, said his main concern was to institute reforms in the poll body as well as prepare for the 2013 midterm elections.

“My priority is: What’s our plan? What will happen to the Comelec? Not in the past, but the future,” Brillantes said.