Telco firm bids 'adieu' to 'Hello, Garci'

A telecommunications firm selling two-way radio services has turned one of the most infamous lines in Philippine politics into its newest sales pitch. Next Mobile placed the "Goodbye Garci" line in newspaper advertisements Thursday as it touted that its services signaled the "end of eavesdropping." "Next Mobile announces the end of eavesdropping ... Now you can talk with utmost confidence, even about your deepest secrets and most delicate plans," it said in its ads. The sales pitch appeared to be an offshoot of the "Hello, Garci" scandal, wherein then poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was one of the personalities included in a military wiretap operation. It touted its equipment and Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (ISDN) technology as "absolutely untappable," adding, "that's your edge." "To this day, there is no known commercial equipment that is able to tap on any iDEN Dispatch/Push to Talk call. Next Mobile, Inc. (NMI) is the country's newest Mobile Telephone System (MTS) operator and the exclusive provider of the iDen technology," it said. "Garci" became a household word in 2005 when excerpts of taped conversations between people who sounded like Garcillano and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were made public. Last August, former military spy Vidal Doble Jr surfaced after two years away from the public eye and spilled the beans on "Project Lighthouse," an alleged elaborate plot to wiretap personalities in and out of the Arroyo administration. Doble, in subsequent Senate hearings, said the wiretaps were done on telecom networks using GSM technology. He said the operations were carried out using insiders at telecom firms. - GMANews.TV