Palace: Can’t go after Garcillano if he shuts up

Malacañang on Saturday admitted it can no longer go after former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano if he insists he knows nothing about alleged cheating in the 2004 elections. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said all the Palace has so far [obtained] from Garcillano, a central figure in the “Hello Garci" scandal, are “feelers." A taped conversation – about alleged vote-rigging – between a woman presumed to be Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a man believed to be former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in 2004 became an object of investigation in 2005 and has since been known as the “Hello Garci" controversy. “Kung wala siyang sasabhin wala tayong magagawa (If he has no information to offer, there is nothing we can do about it)," Valte said on government-run dzRB radio. Earlier, presidential adviser on political affairs Ronald Llamas said he received feelers from Garcillano but said the former commissioner has not given any information. But Garcillano, who is no longer connected with the Commission on Elections, had claimed he has “nothing more to say." On the other hand, Valte belied anew claims that the recent surfacing of “whistleblowers" on high-profile cases was being stage-managed by the Palace. In past weeks, former Maguindanao poll supervisor Lintang Bedol and suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan had told media about alleged fraud in the 2004 and 2007 elections. Both had linked former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo to alleged poll fraud in 2007. Arroyo’s camp denied the allegations. “Walang stage manager, walang stage mother (There is no stage manager, there is no stage mother)," Valte said. — LBG, GMA News