Cayetano reveals link between Napoles party-list, 'Hello Garci' poll fraud scandal

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday revealed that a party-list group connected to pork barrel fund scam "mastermind" Janet Lim-Napoles had been implicated in the 2004 "Hello, Garci" poll fraud scandal.

During Thursday's Senate inquiry, Napoles confirmed her family had forayed into politics by converting their charity firm "Smile" into a party-list group.

Reading records on the 2004 election scandal, Cayetano said Napoles' husband, Jaime, had tried running for a congressional seat through Smile party-list, and that the group was mentioned twice in the "Hello, Garci" tapes.

"Kinukumusta at [nagtatanong] kung puwedeng tulungan ang party-list na iyon... [saying] Smile is connected to a friend," Cayetano said.

"Hello, Garci" refers to the alleged wiretapped conversations where vote rigging in the 2004 elections was discussed by, among others, a woman presumed to be former President Gloria Arroyo and a man believed to be former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

In answer to Cayetano's question, Napoles said she was not aware that her husband had attempted to run for congressman.

But Cayetano said: "Ako, pupunta lang ako sa party, tinatanong ako ng asawa ko eh. Ito party-list, magpapabago ng buhay niyo kapag nanalo dito, tapos hindi sinasabi sa inyo kung bakit?"

Cayetano then suggested what could have been Mr. Napoles' motivation for seeking public office in the House of Representatives.

"Hindi po kaya pumapasok dahil you were already dealing with PDAF. Kaya hindi ba maganda na may congressman na rin sa pamilya niyo," the lawmaker asked. A congressman or a congresswoman receives P70 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund each year.

But Napoles said her husband might have wanted a seat in Congress for "public service."

The "Hello, Garci" scandal nearly toppled the Arroyo administration and was triggered when then Presidential spokesperson Ignacio Bunye released CDs of the "Hello, Garci" conversations on June 6, 2005, presumably to pre-empt a bombshell from the opposition.

Days later, former National Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Samuel Ong presented what he claimed to be the "mother of all tapes" of the wiretapped conversations.

The revelation had led to investigations by the House and the Senate, as well as calls for President Arroyo's resignation.

Arroyo refused to step down. She admitted talking to a Comelec official during the canvassing period and apologized, in a nationally televised address, for her "lapse in judgment" in making such calls to an election official.

However, she said the conversations occurred after the votes had been counted. She did not name the Comelec official she had talked to. — LBG, GMA News