SC: 'Hello Garci' ruling is a go-signal for new Senate probe

MANILA, Philippines – Because it has met a Constitutional requirement to publish its Rules of Procedure in two major broadsheets last October, the Senate can now initiate a fresh probe on the so-called “Hello Garci" wiretapping scandal, a Supreme Court (SC) official said Tuesday. In a phone interview with GMANews.TV, SC spokesperson Atty. Midas Marquez said the High Court took judicial notice of the Senate’s compliance to section 21, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution. That constitutional provision requires Congress to publish its Rules of Procedure Governing Inquiries in Aid of Legislation before conducting any investigation. “The court took a judicial notice on the Rules published last October. The Senate can now call for a new probe because it met the mandated publication requirement," Marquez said. The SC, however, stopped the Senate’s present investigation centered on the "Hello Garci" tapes with the issuance of a writ of prohibition. Voting 8-6, the Tribunal on Tuesday granted the petition of two former Court of Appeals justices to bar the Senate from further conducting a legislative inquiry on the “Hello Garci" because the present Senate of the 14th Congress “had made no effort for the publication of these rules when they first opened their session" in June 2007. The "Hello Garci" scandal refers to the alleged wiretapped conversations where vote rigging was discussed by a woman presumed to be President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and a man alleged to be then Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. The controversy spawned investigations from the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as calls for President Arroyo's resignation. The focus of the Senate's investigation was on the testimony of military spy Vidal Doble who claimed to have participated in the wiretapping operations on opposition and administration officials in 2004. Doble said that in one of their operations, he claimed he was stunned to hear President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo calling former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano on his cellular phone. The conversation allegedly tackled a plot to rig the 2004 presidential vote count in Mindanao. - Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV