Lawyer: Garcillano to attend wiretap probe

(Updated 12:18 p.m.) Former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano will appear before the Senate investigation on the "Hello, Garci" wiretap controversy on Friday next week, his lawyer assured. Lawyer Ed Tamondong, counsel for Garcillano, gave the assurance to the Senate through a written letter dated September 6. "My client respectfully requests ... that he be scheduled to appear on the subsequent hearings of the committees, preferably on Friday (which seems to be the day for Senate investigations), Sept. 21, 2007," Tamondong wrote. Tamondong added that, "He (Garcillano) may not be physically fit to sit long hours in the proceedings by next Friday, September 14, because on September 11 he will undergo a medical process, a sort of minor surgery to extract a tissue from his body, for biopsy purposes." While senators bemoaned that Garcillano has been difficult to trace of late, Tamondong said Garcillano will appear in any scheduled hearing after September 14, "with or without subpoena." Tamondong said Garcillano was already in Manila for the biopsy. He did not divulge which hospital Garcillano was currently in. Retired Major Gen. Jose Balajadia, Senate sergeant-at-arms, said he received a copy of the letter Thursday morning. Balajadia said his operatives went to five areas in Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon province, but failed to find Garcillano. The listed address given by the Senate committee was the RER-2 Subdivision in Cagayan de Oro, but Balajadia said the four other areas were visited on the "initiative" of his operatives. "(They went to) three farms in Malaybalay (City in) Bukidnon but the barangay officials only said he went there during the campaign period," he said. In one area in Baungon in Bukidnon where an unfinished mansion was located, the local village chief, a "kumare" of Garcillano, confirmed the mansion belonged to Garcillano. Garcillano's voice was heard speaking with a female believed to be President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the infamous "Hello, Garci" wiretap recordings. The two allegedly discussed how to ensure a one million vote lead for Mrs Arroyo in the 2004 presidential elections. President Arroyo admitted speaking with an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) during the canvassing period and apologized for her "lapse in judgment" in making such a call. However, she qualified that the conversations occurred after the votes had been counted, and she was careful not to name the Comelec official. - GMANews.TV