Palace aide urges ‘Garci’ generals to testify at proposed House inquiry

MANILA, Philippines—A Malacañang Palace spokeswoman on Saturday urged retired generals mentioned in the “Hello Garci” recordings to testify at a proposed House of Representatives investigation into the involvement of military officers in alleged election fraud in 2004.

One of President Benigno Aquino’s spokespersons, Abigail Valte, said also that the administration will not stand in the way of active officers who may be summoned to testify in any congressional probe into the issue of the  Mayuga Commission’s alleged failure to follow through on leads to the involvement of military officers in election fraud.

Valte, nonetheless, said it would be up to the House of Representatives to decide whether to conduct an investigation of the generals implicated in the recordings of  telephone conversations ostensibly between then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Election Commissioner Virgilion Garcillano on the rigging of election results in certain places in Mindanao.

“If they want to clear their names, what they should do is to go and participate,” Valte said over government-run radio station dzRB.

A number of generals’ names were mentioned in the so-called “Hello Garci” tapes, which included conversation involving election results in Mindanao.

Told that former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon, one of the officers whose name was mentioned in the controversial recordings, was willing to face a congressional inquiry into the matter, Valte said: “Well, at least he’s willing to go to Congress to explain. And let’s see what his explanation would be.”

Bayan Muna congressmen Teddy Casiño and Neri Colmenares have asked the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry after they got a copy of the Mayuga Report and found that the military panel failed to pursue certain leads in investigating the role of some officers in the alleged rigging of the election results  to favor Arroyo.

Asked if Malacañang believes the inquiry into the poll fraud in 2004 was necessary, Valte said: “At this point we are not in a position to comment because legislatures belong to a separate and co-equal branch of government. So as that stands, they are perfectly free to initiate investigation in aid of legislation.”