MANILA – The presidential and vice presidential tandem of Senators Grace Poe and Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Friday (March 4) lambasted critics for spreading word that they had talked to former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, supposedly their consultant.
"I will not desecrate the memory of my father," Poe said in her speech before thousands of supporters in Zamboanga City, according to a statement issued to media. Poe said Garcillano would not dare go near her after what he did during the 2004 presidential elections, when Poe's father, the actor Fernando Poe Jr., had claimed he was cheated by then President Gloria Arroyo.
Poe's speech distancing herself from Garcillano happened a day after Vice President Jejomar Binay flatly denied a claim by the spokesman for the Liberal Party campaign of Mar Roxas, Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez, that Garcillano was tapped by Binay. Pressed for his basis, Gutierrez later said the sole basis was "information from concerned citizens." Binay's United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) painted the Gutierrez remarks as signs of desperation by a trailing candidate's camp.
The former poll official figured prominently in 2005, a year after the presidential elections, when Ignacio Bunye, then presidential spokesman to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, came out on national television showing tapes of supposed wiretapped conversations between Garcillano and Arroyo.
A man’s voice, supposedly Garcillano's, told a woman at the other end of the line, perceived to be Arroyo, that he could assure her of lead of a million votes against her presidential rival.
Poe’s father, the late action star Fernando Poe Jr., lost by around a million to Arroyo in that election, which was perceived to be marred with massive fraud allegedly orchestrated by Garcillano.
At the height of so-called Hello, Garci scandal, the poll official went into hiding. He recently resurfaced at a hotel in Cagayan de Oro City, where Poe and Binay were billeted for the first presidential debates.
"Kung mayroon siyang dapat iwasan, ako yon," Poe said, referring to Garcillano. "Sapagkat yung kanyang ginawa noong 2004, bagama’t siya ay nakalusot sa mata ng legal na batas, hindi siya nakalusot sa ating mga kababayan na alam naman natin may kinalaman siya noong dayaan noong 2004."
"Hindi ko bababuyin ang alaala ng tatay ko para makipagkita sa isang katulad niya,” she added, eliciting applause from the audience.
On Thursday, Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, who is running for reelection as an independent, said he had received an unconfirmed report that Garcillano had been tapped as a consultant for the Poe-Escudero tandem.
For his part, Escudero said he could not in conscience tap Garcillano’s services.
"Tinitiyak ko sa inyo, hindi kami ni Senator Grace yon," he said. "Kung dinaya ni Garcillano si FPJ, ako ang nanguna sa imbestigasyon kay Garcillano noong ako’y minority leader sa Kongreso."
"Hindi lang ang alaala ni FPJ, hindi ko rin bababuyin ang proseso ng ating halalan dahil wala naman kaming pag-uusapan ni Garcillano," he added.
