Post by LATAGAW on Aug 18, 2005 15:26:19 GMT 8
[glow=red,2,300]Garcillano flees via Singapore
He left July 14 aboard a Subic Air Learjet
IN SPITE of an air-sea manhunt in the Philippines, the elusive Virgilio Garcillano has slipped out to Singapore and left for an unknown destination, the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday cited a Singapore report as saying.
Garcillano, a former election commissioner caught in a wiretapped conversation allegedly implicating President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in election fraud, arrived in Singapore on July 14 and departed for an undisclosed place the next day, the Singapore foreign ministry said.
"Flight is an evidence of guilt," said Representative Jacinto Paras of Negros Oriental. The House had issued a strongly worded subpoena, regarded as a de facto arrest order, on July 13 -- a day before Garcillano's departure.
Apart from Garcillano's arrival and departure in Singapore, the city-state did not provide any other details, said Foreign Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin. Ebdalin said he got the information "a few days back."
The Inquirer has learned that Garcillano left on the evening of July 14 onboard a Subic Air Learjet, which took off from the Manila domestic airport. The plane, RP-P1426, was bound for Cebu City but never landed there. The flight plan was apparently changed in mid-air.
An Inquirer source said the two Learjet pilots did not know Garcillano was their passenger until they were told about it later. One of the pilots was identified as Art Santos.
The source said Air Transportation Office chief Nilo Jatico briefed the pilots on departure and arrival. But Jatico denied this last night. Jatico said the ATO was only concerned about the aircraft's registry, its flight plan and the pilots.
"We would not know anything about the passengers. It's the job of the immigration, the PNP (Philippine National Police) Aviation Security Group and Customs.”
Earlier, Surigao del Sur Representative Prospero Pichay told the Inquirer that a Learjet had left the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for Singapore on a "maintenance checkup" and that aboard were Art Santos, co-pilot Willy Bautista and mechanic Ben Hafalla. There was no Garcillano on the manifest, he said.
Pichay had arranged a telephone interview by an Inquirer reporter with Garcillano last month.
London ruled out
DFA spokesperson Gilberto Asuque said Singapore's immigration agency did not keep records of destinations of departing passengers. Asuque ruled out the possibility that Garcillano -- assuming he was still using that name -- had entered the United Kingdom.
Asuque said Philippine Consul General in London Mario de Leon had reported that the UK's Foreign Commonwealth Office had not issued a visa to Garcillano. Asuque said the FCO had already made this clear in a diplomatic note to the embassy.
The Philippines does not have an extradition treaty with Britain.
Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez, Jr. maintained the bureau had no record of Garcillano leaving the country on July 14, or anytime after his name cropped up in the wiretap scandal.
Garcillano was placed on the Bureau of Immigration watchlist on Aug. 4 after the House issued a warrant for his arrest.
Fernandez said Garcillano's name would have appeared on a plane manifest if he flew abroad. If he had left on a chartered flight, the pilot was still required to submit the names of passengers.
He also said if Garcillano had been able to elude immigration officers and slipped out using his own passport, the country of his final destination would not have accepted him without an exit stamp from the Philippines' immigration officials.
Response to Remulla's request
Ebdalin said he informed Cavite Representative Gilbert Remulla yesterday about the Singapore report.
Remulla is chairman of the joint House hearing on wiretapping that had issued an arrest warrant for Garcillano after he failed to respond to summons to appear before the inquiry. Ebdalin said he responded to Remulla's request to verify a report that Garcillano had flown to Singapore.
The opposition said the wiretap was evidence that Ms Arroyo rigged last year's election. Revelations of the wiretap and allegations her family received illegal gambling payoffs have triggered demands for Ms Arroyo's resignation and impeachment proceedings in Congress.
Battling to overcome the worst political crisis of her 4-year-old presidency, Ms Arroyo has admitted to a "lapse in judgment" in talking to an election official but denied any wrongdoing.
Presentation of evidence
The House committee on justice, meeting for the third time to hear the impeachment complaint against Ms Arroyo, remained bogged down in procedural questions on the form and substance of the impeachment complaint.
Impatient over the seemingly endless debates, opposition lawmakers yesterday started presenting evidence to the media to support the impeachment complaint.
At a press conference, Taguig-Pateros Representative Alan Peter Cayetano, impeachment team spokesperson, disclosed an allegedly well-planned drive to steal the 2004 polls by showing copies of election returns (ERs) that had been supposedly prepared long before the elections.
According to Cayetano, 33,000 ERs representing 6 million votes were allegedly tampered by a group of 50 people including an unnamed congressman.
Mired in procedures
Administration lawmakers immediately condemned the move, saying it was a "blatant disregard" and "disrespect" to the whole impeachment process since the presentation of evidence was made outside of the justice committee's hearings.
"It's an utter disrespect to the process. (The opposition is) subverting the impeachment process," said Deputy Majority Leader Edcel Lagman, noting that the committee was just having its second hearing yesterday.
Cayetano conducted the press conference an hour before the start of the hearing.
"We have yet to reach the presentation of evidence. It's as if they're preempting the process in the committee," said Lagman, stressing that the motive was clear -- to embarrass the committee.
The justice committee is still mired in procedural issues arising from the three impeachment complaints lodged against Ms Arroyo.
The amended complaint filed by the opposition on July 25 -- viewed by the opposition as the stronger case -- cited seven illegal acts, including poll fraud, to support the three grounds for impeaching the President.
Overprint?
Cayetano said the 33,000 ERs could be the "excess or overprinted" ones admitted by Election Commissioner Resurrection Borja during the elections.
"It is the existence of such documentary evidence that has this administration panicking and doing everything both legal and illegal to stop the truth from coming out," said Cayetano.
Aided by a slide presentation, Cayetano showed a "roomful of evidence" attesting to the opposition's oft-repeated accusation that the administration orchestrated a systematic and massive cheating in the last elections so that Ms Arroyo could gain a fresh six-year mandate.
He accused the Arroyo administration of wanting "to kill the 'Hello Garci' tapes as a reason to kill the impeachment move to forever hide (its) electoral fraud. Today, I want to share with you a glimpse of the roomful of evidence that we have to (show that) the presidency has been stolen." With reports from Nancy Carvajal and Nikko Dizon
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