Perjury, falsification raps filed vs Garci

Former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was charged on Wednesday with perjury and falsification of documents for allegedly lying under oath and presenting a fake passport in congressional inquiries in 2005.

 

Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares filed the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday morning.

 

“This is part of our quest for accountability and justice. Garci should be charged based on his sins against the people,” Casiño said in a statement.

 

The complainants said Garcillano should be held liable for allegedly violating Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) pertaining to falsification of documents, Article 183 of the RPC pertaining to perjury, and provisions of Republic Act 8239 or the Philippine passport law.

 

The lawmakers cited several instances when Garcillano supposedly lied about his whereabouts during House hearings on the “Hello Garci” scandal almost seven years ago.

 

The “Hello, Garci" scandal refers to taped conversations supposedly between Garcillano and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo where poll fraud was supposedly discussed in detail. 

 

In the conversation, Mrs. Arroyo was alleged to have directed Garcillano to ensure that she will have a lead of a million votes over the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., the opposition standard bearer. The former President later admitted that she indeed spoke with an unnamed poll official and apologized for her supposed “lapse in judgment.”

 

Lying under oath

 

In the complaint, Casiño and Colmenares argued that Garcillano “deliberately and knowingly lied under oath that he never left the country” during congressional inquiries in July 2005.

 

During those House hearings, Garcillano said he was in the Philippines when the House issued summons for him, despite documents from the Department of Justice showing that he left the country and went to Singapore.

 

The lawmakers also accused Garcillano of presenting a fake passport during one of the inquiries to prove that he did not go abroad.

 

The lawmakers based their accusation on a report released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in February 2006, which said that the passport Garcillano submitted to the House “does not conform to the standards set by the BSP.”

 

Colmenares, for his part, said the complaint was filed against Garcillano to prevent him from leaving the country and escaping possible poll fraud charges. The former poll executive last made a public appearance in July 2010 from his farm in Bukidnon where again denied involvement in any poll fraud during the 2004 polls to favor Mrs. Arroyo. 

 

“The important thing for now is for cases to be filed against him or he can leave the country and go scot free,” Colmenares said in the same statement.

 

Under the RPC, a person proven guilty of perjury shall be jailed for up to six months. A person proven guilty of falsification of documents, meanwhile, shall be imprisoned for up to six years. — RSJ, GMA News