Arroyo on Garci probe: 'Here we go again'

“Here we go again." This was how President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo summed up Monday her sentiment on the looming Senate hearings on the revived "Hello Garci" wiretapped conversations. Radio station dzBB reported Monday that when a journalist asked Mrs Arroyo if the military was demoralized over the Garci issue, she said, "No," then muttered, "Here we go again." Mrs Arroyo then drank a glass of juice and tried to change the topic of the interview, the report said. Senator Panfilo “Ping" Lacson renewed the issue in a speech before the Senate on August 21 when he played a video of former military intelligence agent Vidal Doble who said wiretapping operations of mostly leading opposition figures were conducted from September 2003 to April 2005. A growing number of senators have said they would back a reopening of the “Hello Garci" probe. The scandal involved tapes that surfaced in 2005 allegedly of President Arroyo talking on the phone with former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano on the padding of votes in her favor in the 2004 polls. Meanwhile, Lacson laughed off Monday claims that destabilization and recruitment were on his agenda when he visited detained Marine officers in Tanay last Friday. DzBB reported that Lacson said he never touched on the "Hello Garci" issue when he talked and had lunch with the Marine officers led by Col. Ariel Querubin. He said he merely visited the detained soldiers and asked them how they were doing. Even if he were to recruit them for destabilization as his critics claimed, he said he would not do that there because he assumed the area was bugged. Besides, he said, it did not make sense to "recruit" soldiers who are already detained. Lacson also branded as "illogical and baseless" the military's sacking of the guards at Camp Capinpin, whom he said merely extended to him the respect due a senator and a member of the Senate defense committee and a Philippine Military Academy graduate. He added he planned his visit several times before, passing through standard process, but had the chance to push through with it only last Friday. On Sunday, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said Mrs Arroyo had not issued any directive on the matter because “she has more important things to do." Apostol, who dismissed the controversy as “recycled issue," also said Malacañang was ready for the reopening of the probe. “They can start the probe anytime…We’re ready for it," the chief presidential legal counsel said. -GMANews.TV