Hello, Garci? Perjury charges set

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Virgilio Garcillano, the former elections commissioner whose leaked phone conversations with ex-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo almost cost her her job, will be charged in court for lying under oath and using a fake passport, the Ombudsman said. 

In a resolution on Tuesday, March 18, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said her office found probable cause to charge Garcillano with perjury based on a complaint filed against him in January 2012 by Bayan Muna party-list representatives Neri Colmenares and Teddy Casiño.

Congress investigated Garcillano in December 2005 after wiretapped conversations between him and Mrs Arroyo was leaked to the media. The conversations pertained to the counting of votes in the 2004 presidential race that Mrs Arroyo won over chief rival Fernando Poe Jr.

The opposition then accused Garcillano of presenting to them a fake passport to prove that he never left the country at the height of the “Hello,Garci” scandal. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas however told Congress then that Garcillano’s passport seemed to lack authentic identification.

The Ombudsman’s resolution said Garcillano indeed left the country via Singapore in July 2005. 

Thus, “Garcillano made a deliberate and willful assertion of a falsehood during the congressional hearing when he testified that he never left the Philippines after the “Hello Garci” controversy broke out,” the Ombudsman said.  

The “Hello, Garci” scandal triggered the resignation of key Cabinet members, an apology from Arroyo and massive protests. An intelligence unit in the military was believed to have taped the conversations and leaked it to outsiders.

The Ombudsman will be filing the perjury charges against Garcillano before the Sandiganbayan. If convicted, he could face fines and imprisonment of 6 years or longer. – Rappler.com