MANILA, Philippines — The reported wiretap on the phone of former President Corazon Aquino may be a publicity stunt to promote the senatorial candidacy of her son, candidates of Team Unity said yesterday.
“I don’t believe that. You must ask Noynoy (Benigno Aquino III of the Genuine Opposition). He might be bugging Cory,” Prospero Pichay told reporters in Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte, where he and other TU candidates are conducting a final swing through Mindanao.
According to Vicente Sotto III, studies have shown that candidates resort to strategy and publicity gimmicks when elections near.
“I’m just wondering, who would bug President Cory? She’s too well-loved to be bugged,” Sotto said, adding that he himself would not mind if his phone conversations were tapped.
“Kung wala ka namang itinatago, bakit ka matatakot (If you’re not hiding anything, why should you be afraid)?” he said.
Ralph Recto, also of TU, said he could not understand why anyone would want to tap Aquino’s phone when she was no longer active in politics.
But he said wiretapping was reprehensible whether conducted on an incumbent or former President, or anyone else. “We cannot treat wiretapping victims differently, one with disdain and the other with sympathy. We should be consistent in condemning illegal eavesdropping whenever and on whomever it is employed,” he said.
On Thursday, Aquino called a press conference to announce that a wiretapping device connected to her phone at her residence on Times Street, Quezon City, was discovered on Wednesday by linemen.
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. confirmed the discovery of the device, and Noynoy Aquino subsequently called on the government to arrest those behind the wiretap.
The military quickly denied involvement.
Recto said it would be unfair to immediately point to the military as the culprit, “at a time when a how-to manual in making a nuclear bomb can be downloaded from the Internet.”
“My point is, we may not be able to find the real culprits if we only focus on the usual suspects,” he said.
‘Isafp did it’
In an interview with the Inquirer in Manila, GO candidate Panfilo Lacson quoted what he called his “mole” in the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces as saying that it was the Isafp that installed the tap on Aquino’s phone.
Lacson said he was able to validate this because the device found in a PLDT “cross-connect cabinet” was of the same type he had turned over to the Isafp when the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, which he once headed, was done with it.
He said there were Isafp agents in the task force.
Lacson said the tap on Aquino’s phone appeared to have been intended to “muddle” the 2005 “Hello Garci” wiretap scandal that led to allegations of vote rigging in the 2004 presidential election.
Either that, or the Isafp is “getting sloppy,” he said.
“These are illegal activities that, I am sure, are not covered by a court order. The equipment was discovered in a junction box. It seems they want to muddle the ‘Garci’ issue and show that any Tom, Dick and Harry can just conduct wiretap operations,” Lacson said.
“Why did they have to put it in a junction box [where it may be seen by linemen]? One can listen in even from a private residence. Why didn’t they set up a safe house?” he said.
He added that it was safe to assume that every GO personality was a target of the wiretapping.
Lacson was a longtime intelligence officer in the now defunct Philippine Constabulary, and used a wide intelligence network when he headed a task force of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission and later the entire Paoctf.
No way
But given the “very crude” device found in the PLDT phone box, the military can’t be involved, said National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, who has launched an inquiry into the incident.
“Those are very old methods that the intelligence services [of the military] no longer use. In my inquiries, [I verified that] the AFP is not involved,” he said in a phone interview.
Gonzales, one of the key members of the Cabinet cluster on national security, said the military’s intelligence units were using more advanced equipment.
“There are [legitimate surveillance operations], those that have court orders,” he said.
He added that he would still investigate the other intelligence units of the government, including the police, to see if they had anything to do with what he described as a “very crazy” incident. But he earlier expressed his opinion that the wiretap could not have been a government operation.
Gonzales would not rule out the opposition as having to do with the wiretap.
“Many of those in the opposition are capable of doing that,” he said.
Don’t get excited
Gabriel Claudio, President Macapagal-Arroyo’s political adviser, said the opposition “should not get excited about this story” because no one knew for sure who had planted the listening device.
“The fact is we don’t know the facts. We don’t know who has done this, and whether it was an authentic wiretap or a dummy to create a convenient political controversy,” CLaudio said in a text message.
“The proper thing to do is let the authorities investigate this matter thoroughly so that the culprits can be identified and punished, irrespective of their motives,” he added.
Asked to comment, GO candidate Alan Peter Cayetano said the opposition did not need “convenient controversies” because it continued to enjoy public support.
Cayetano said Claudio’s remarks were “totally out of sync with reality.”
“In our people’s mind, the fertilizer scam, the ‘Garci’ wiretapping scandal, the Northrail and Piatco scandals and the legitimacy of President Arroyo are alive, and there’s no need for reminders,” he told the Inquirer by phone.
Cayetano said it was normal to point a finger at the administration “because they have a track record of monitoring their critics, of wiretapping, and then lying about it.”
“We’re not excited about it. We’re simply sending a warning to fellow oppositionists and critics of government that the extrajudicial killings, wiretapping and invasion of our privacy, as well as political harassment, will continue, and that we should all be wary, informed and prepared,” he said.
Me, too
Saying he knew whereof he spoke, former President Fidel Ramos said the tapping of Aquino’s phone was downright “shameful,” “saddening” and a subject for thorough investigation.
“[T]rue or not, it is really so saddening to have a former President, even just a former high official, being bugged by somebody,” Ramos said. “I know, because I was a victim of that before.”
He added that the matter was embarrassing for the country.
Ramos spoke with reporters after attending a lecture series at the National Defense College of the Philippines in Camp Aguinaldo, where he was the guest speaker.
Looking at media photographs of the listening device, Ramos said it looked “so primitive.”
“So [it must have been installed] a long, long time ago,” back when Aquino was newly widowed, he said.
Asked when he became the subject of surveillance, Ramos said he was no longer President when his cell phone was bugged. He said he did not pay much attention to it, and never found out who was behind it.
Call in the NBI
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Aquino should ask the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the wiretap and stop speculations on the matter.
Asked if this was a matter of concern given the person involved, he said it would first have to be proven if there was an actual wiretap.
“That’s why I am saying, have it investigated. Otherwise, suspicions will run wild and eventually Channel 7 will say it’s the administration [who’s responsible],” he said.
Gonzalez said he himself was not interested in tapping Aquino’s phone because he believed nothing could be gained from doing so.
He was also displeased at speculation that the administration was behind the wiretap: “That is too much speculation. Everything that happens is attributable to the administration. Pretty soon, if you just step on cow manure, it’s the administration that’s guilty.”
Asked about the claim that the wiretap was a gimmick to gain mileage for Noynoy Aquino in the homestretch of the senatorial campaign, Gonzalez said that could be a possibility.
But if the device is genuine, the Aquino family may be in “danger of being monitored,” he said. Reports from Cynthia D. Balana in Kidapawan; Norman Bordadora, Michael Lim Ubac, Christine O. Avendaño, Leila B. Salaverria and Juliet Labog-Javellana in Manila
