Senate committees farm out assignments in 'Garci' probe

Senators reopening the "Hello, Garci" investigation will map out plans Monday on how to summon two Cabinet members, a former Armed Forces spy, military intelligence officers, a former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) official, elections officials and representatives of telecommunications companies. Inviting them and organizing their appearances will be the main topic to be taken up Monday afternoon at an organizational meeting on the "Hello, Garci" reinvestigation. Senator Rodolfo Biazon, head of the defense committee that will take the lead role in the investigation, said he expects the list of witnesses to be farmed out during the meeting. Among the witnesses and resource persons the Senate plans to invite are Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, former military spy Vidal Doble Jr, Doble's superiors at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces (Isafp); and retired Armed Forces chief Gen. Efren Abu. Likewise eyed for questioning are representatives of telecommunications service providers, whose help Doble said was critical in Isafp's wiretapping operations. Senators are still debating on whether or not to include former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in the list. Biazon said Monday afternoon's meeting will seek to divide the work among the three committees, including the Blue Ribbon committee under Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, and the electoral reforms committee under Sen. Richard Gordon. He said Gordon's committee will likely focus on grilling election-related officials, including those from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and poll watchdog groups. The defense committee can invite national security officials, while Cayetano's committee can invite other public officials. However, Biazon said he will propose that he sign all invitations to all resource persons to be invited, as his is the lead committee in the reinvestigation. Earlier, Biazon said the meeting will also discuss scenarios from Malacañang's threat to invoke Executive Order 464. He added that the Senate is not inclined to hold executive sessions, and instead favors public hearings during the investigation. "We'll hold open hearings as much as possible. Equally important to the function of legislation are the oversight function and probably as an added bonus the function to inform our people," he said in Filipino on dzBB radio Sunday. Malacañang earlier said it will invoke EO 464 to block officials under the executive department from testifying at the investigation. However, senators expressed confidence other resource persons such as Doble and retired military officials are no longer covered by EO 464. Biazon said there appears to be no need to play the wiretapped "Hello, Garci" tapes during the hearings as the recordings had already been heard by lawmakers before. "The investigation is not too dependent on the playing of the tapes. Besides, you can buy copies of the tapes on the sidewalk, and the Lower House already played the tapes. We all know the contents of the tapes," he said. For its part, Malacañang hinted at another clash with the Senate over the "Hello, Garci" reinvestigation, as it "reminded" senators of the "constitutional" portion of EO 464. Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said the Supreme Court declared as constitutional the submission of "advance" questions to be asked of the officials concerned. "EO 464 was partly declared unconstitutional, the other part was declared constitutional. So the Palace executives in the executive department must solicit the permission of the Chief Executive for them to testify. And the requirements should be complied with (such as) sets of questions and then the purpose if it is in aid of legislation or by virtue of oversight committee function," Apostol said on dzBB radio. Asked if Malacañang will allow the officials concerned to attend Senate hearings once the Senate submits a set of questions it will ask, Apostol said that, "There's no assurance. The Palace will study it. It is not an automatic thing." Apostol insisted Malacañang is not shaken over the upcoming investigation, but threatened Doble anew with prosecution. Doble had said earlier that he could not talk freely before Congress because his family was detained in the quarters of then Abu when the latter was military chief of staff. Apostol also said the Senate should not accept the tapes because RA 4200 makes the tapes inadmissible as evidence. "Definitely, he (Doble) can be made a defendant in a criminal case in violation of RA 4200," he added. However, he said the Palace will not have anything to do with the actual filing of charges, saying it will be the job of the Justice department. "The Palace will not have anything to do with that. Let the law enforcement agencies or DOJ do it," he said. - GMANews.TV