Cayetano says ‘Hello Garci’ boys still in Comelec

Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday identified at least four alleged “key players" in the Hello Garci scandal who are still holding positions in the Commission on Elections (Comelec). In 2004, a taped conversation about alleged vote-rigging between a woman presumed to be Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a man presumed to be former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano took place. When it surfaced in 2005, it became known as the “Hello Garci" controversy. Cayetano, in a statement released Friday, said alleged Hello Garci players Renato Magbutay, Francisco Pobe, Renault Macarambon, Teopisto Elnas Jr, Cirilo Nala, Jr and Ray Sumalipao are still holding key positions in the Comelec. Magbutay and Pobe were retained as election director of Region X and acting assistant election director of CARAGA, respectively. On the other hand, Macarambon and Elnas now hold positions in the poll body’s Election and Barangay Affairs Division (EBAD) while Nala holds office as Comelec supervisor of Surigao del Sur. Sumalipao, meanwhile, is currently the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) regional director. Sumalipao had earlier denied being involved in the 2004 scandal. During Wednesday’s Commission on Appointments (CA) hearing, however, Cayetano said poll body chairman Sixto Brillantes should have looked into the Comelec officials who were involved in the Hello Garci anomaly. “You have to ask who was involved and where are they now. You cannot use due process as a reason because the President did not appoint you to become the lawyers of these officials in question," he said. Brillantes, for his part, said that they had intended to shuffle the Comelec officials if the ARMM elections had pushed through. In a phone interview with GMA News Online on Friday, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez likewise said that the poll officials mentioned by Cayetano were already investigated by the Comelec Law Department. "They were all cleared," he said. The CA committee on constitutional commissions and offices had earlier deferred the hearing of Brillantes’ appointment to August 9 after Congress resumes session. — Kimberly Tan/MRT, GMA News