Intel community behind Ong, says Gloria-Garci tapes real
Wednesday, 06 15, 2005
The sympathy of the country's intelligence community is not on President Arroyo and her administration but on former National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Samuel Ong, it was learned yesterday. More members of the country's intelligence community are reportedly throwing their support behind Ong after consultations with one another, and concluding they are now convinced that the “Gloriagate tapes” are not only for real, but that the President had engaged in widescale fraud to win the vote and cheat opposition standard bearer Fernando Poe Jr., of his election victory.
This, after a source in the intelligence community said intelligence operatives from various government agencies have silently signified support for Ong, who recently came out in the open disclosing that he has the copy of the incriminating conversations that are contained in the master tape, which he held up before the media during a press conference last week.
“
We're human, too. We're not robots and we're not animals. We do our jobs, but once we realize a wrong, we won't just stand by and allow it to continue,” said the source, who requested anonymity. The same source said this support comes not only from the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp), but from other law enforcement agencies as well.
But when asked what kind of support they plan to give Ong when the time comes, the source said, cryptically: “Just wait and you will see.”
Earlier, the source confirmed that election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was the target of a wiretapped conversation with President Arroyo shortly after the May 2004 elections.
The source said Mrs. Arroyo was merely a “side casualty” of the wiretap operations that have triggered a major scandal.
“It was Garcillano who was being tapped. There was a small team assigned to keep tabs on him,” said the source, who has been involved in intelligence operations since the Aquino administration.
When asked which agency conducted the wiretap, the source said, “only the Isafp has the equipment to do so.”
The source added that all requests for a wiretap, including those from the Presidential Security Group (PSG), are coursed to the Isafp, but added that while no one in Malacañang or the Isafp hierarchy expected it to happen, the “human factor” likely led operatives to leak out the contents of the tape.
“Intelligence operatives are not robots or animals. They have their own consciences. You can control them but that control extends only so far. If they are fed up, they will take action on their own,” the source said.
Asked where the Isafp operatives who conducted the wiretap may be now, the source said they are now likely in hiding.
He added the operatives in the particular wiretap project on Garcillano know that once the tape contents leak out, their lives will be in danger.
“In the intelligence community, wiretap teams are very small. The ideal size is three, so that if any leak takes place, the leak can be easily traced,” the source said.
Ong took refuge at the San Carlos Seminary in Guadalupe, Makati City, but was sneaked out by the priests and Ong lawyers the other day. His whereabouts are unknown.
A ranking police official yesterday, however, claimed the police know the exact location of Ong and they can arrest him anytime the warrant is issued.
PNP Spokesman chief Supt. Leopoldo Bataoil, said Ong, who admitted that he has the “mother of all tapes” on the purported conversation of the President and Garcillano, was brought somewhere in the southern part of Metro Manila.
“Somewhere in the south, was the area where our monitoring team discovered him to be, but let's leave it at that. We will give him quality time with his lawyers,” Bataoil bragged, but added that “when time comes, then we will do what is appropriate.”
Several media entitles had staked out outside the posh Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City after they received information that Ong was brought there after he was taken out of the San Carlos Seminary the other night. The media were not allowed entry inside the subdivision.
On the statement of Ong that he was ready to die, as he will not let the police arrest him, the PNP assured that they would not let Ong do it.
“We will ensure his safety. We will protect him unless he takes his own life. We will make sure he won't do it,” Bataoil said.
In a related development, lawyer Alan Paguia, who first released the taped conversation, who was waiting for his arresting officers on alleged wire tapping charge, said the police were a no show.
“It's disappointing,” Paguia told reporters who rushed to his house on a tip that the lawyer would be arrested yesterday.
Paguia said he was expecting the authorities to make the arrest yesterday following a statement from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez that he would be invited by the NBI for “tactical interrogation.”
Paguia was first who came out with a taped conversation allegedly between Mrs. Arroyo and Garcillano on how to rig the May 20, 2004 elections, after Palace spokesman came up with two tapes, one of which he claimed was the original, while the other was doctored by a sector of the opposition.
But Paguia said it would be doubtful if the DoJ could come out with a complainant that they were wire-tapped. “That would be an admission of guilt on the part of the President and Garcillano,” Paguia said yesterday.
Former Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, who rushed to Paguia's rescue, said until now the DoJ has not filed any complaint against Paguia.
“What's the reason (for the arrest)? Until now there's no complaint,” Dilangalen said yesterday.
Dilangalen, like the lawyers of Ong, said the DoJ would have to go through the process of preliminary investigation before a case could be filed in court and an arrest warrant is issued by the court.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. yesterday vehemently denied any involvement in keeping Ong away from the eyes of authorities hunting him down.
The administration senator issued the statement amid speculations that he was providing protection and shelter to Ong who left the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City where he was holed up since Friday around 8 p.m. to an unknown destination.
“It is 'not' true that Ong is currently staying or has stayed in my residence in Alabang nor have I kept him in another place. Such information is purely speculative,” the senator said.
“Ong is not with me,” Magsaysay said in clearing himself from the controversy.
Magsaysay's name cropped up as Ong, believed to have boarded a van on their way out of the seminary, and his alleged hosts went toward the southern part of Metro Manila.
Magsaysay was the first to visit the seminary when Ong surfaced before the public but the senator said he went there because one of the embattled former NBI official's lawyers happened to be a personal friend.
With Francis Jay Bilowan, Gerry Baldo and Angie M. Rosales
GMA poll fraud proof against FPJ bared on taped calls.
Originally Posted by FK
so GMA has no brains? coz she didn't see it coming? maypa iya gi-txt.
WATCH YOUR ATTITUDE!
Yehey, supercop Lacson saved the day! [parang pelikula] 
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