DOJ orders NBI to unmask source of ‘Hello Nico’ tapes

Justice Secretary Alberto Agra on Tuesday ordered government agents to coordinate with their US counterparts in determining the source of an alleged taped conversation between an election official and a Cabinet secretary regarding a plot to rig the recent elections. Agra particularly wants the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to identify the person or persons who uploaded the supposed conversation between Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer and Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno on the Internet. He said the NBI, an agency under the Department of Justice (DOJ), may seek assistance from the US government through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). “We’ve already written the US embassy invoking the MLA. We are asking their help to determine the source or who was the one who uploaded the alleged conversation between Secretary Puno and Commissioner Ferrer," Agra told reporters at a press briefing. Both Puno and Ferrer have denied that they were the persons in the wiretapped conversation, now dubbed as the “Hello Nico" controversy patterned after 2005’s “Hello Garci" scandal. The “Hello Garci" scandal refers to the alleged taped conversation between a woman believed to be President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a man believed to be then Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano regarding poll fraud. According to Agra, the NBI had already traced the website where the so-called conversation was originally uploaded but still could not identify the people behind it. He said the original website was based in the US and the re-routed website is based in Germany. He, however, noted that the two websites can be both created in the country. Regarding the alleged irregularities in the May 10 automated elections as claimed by Quezon City Rep. and defeated mayoralty bet Annie Susano, Agra said the NBI are currently getting the affidavits of officers of the Smartmatic-TIM, the technology provider in the recently concluded elections, and Comelec. He said an officer of Smartmatic has already provided his sworn affidavit while an officer of the Comelec is expected to submit his sworn statement soon. Susano claimed having in her possession a compact flash (CF) card used for precinct optical scan (PCOS) machines, a proof that the Comelec and Smartmatic failed to properly secure the election machines, resulting to fraud. Agra said the Comelec is currently conducting an inventory of all CF cards to determine whether or not the CF card in Susano’s possession is authentic and was used in the last elections. “The Comelec is undertaking the inventory of all the CF cards, because the basic questions is whether there are missing or lacking CF cards, and if there are missing or lacking CF cards if these cards were assigned or were supposed to be used for Quezon City. So these two are the most important questions for us," he said. The NBI has been given until June 15 to finish its investigation on the alleged poll-related irregularities. - KBK, GMANews.TV