Commissioner with a checkered past
Posted by: Sheila Coronel | June 8, 2005 at 5:51 pm
Filed under: 2004 Electoral Fraud, Comelec Watch, Governance, In the News
FROM the beginning, Virgilio Garcillano was bad news. Now at the center of a controversy involving his supposedly wiretapped conversations that imply election fraud, Garcillano was a disaster waiting to happen.
To begin with, he has a checkered past. In political circles, Garcillano’s reputation is that of an election “technician” or “mechanic,” someone with intimate knowledge of how the counting and canvassing procedures work and how they could be manipulated. So when he was appointed election commissioner on February 11, 2004, soon after the presidential campaign had kicked off, there were such loud howls of protest that not even the President’s staunchest defenders rose to his defense.
As Comelec regional director for Northern Mindanao, a post that he held until his retirement in 2002, Garcillano had been linked to dagdag bawas or vote padding and shaving operations. Dagdag bawas is by now a perfected technology, and it involves not retail doctoring of election returns at the precinct level, but large-scale manipulation of canvass sheets at the municipal and provincial levels.
Senator Pimentel has accused Garcillano not only of involvement in dagdag bawas operations but also of distributing money in previous elections to Comelec officials from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Pimentel also alleged that at a private dinner with Mrs. Arroyo on January 21, 2004, Garcilliano had boasted he could do a lot to help her in theelection.
Even Senator Drilon, an Arroyo ally, had urged the President to withdraw Garcillano’s nomination. “People in the know say nasty things about him,” Drilon said in February 2004, and asked Arroyo to help rebuild the Comelec’s credibility by appointing officials with unquestioned integrity to the poll body.
Namfrel and other NGOs, too, objected to the appointment of a man with a less-than-savory track record, especially at a time when the Comelec had not even recovered from the controversy over overpriced counting machines.
Yet the President stood by Garcillano, and her spokesman, Ignacio Bunye even issued a statement saying, Garcilliano’s appointment “is obviously being exploited as a tool for mudslinging and an avenue for settling a personal grudge. We will not dignify this allegation unless it is substantiated by strong and concrete pieces of evidence.”
It didn’t help that Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos promptly appointed Garcillano as the commissioner in charge of Northern Mindanao, Western Mindanao and Socsargen. So scandalous was this assignment that Abalos was forced to withdraw it, instead assigning Garcilliano to the Southern Tagalog region, where it was thought he would do less harm.
But the mischief continued. At the height of the debate over the citizenship of Fernando Poe Jr., Garcillano said the candidate should be disqualified from the presidential race. That statement cast serious doubts on the commissioner’s impartiality and he subsequently had to apologize for being “too presumptuous.”
On May 13, 2004, barely three days after the election, Garcillano was seen dining at a private room at the Manila Diamond Hotel with Pagcor chair Efraim Genuino. Pimentel promptly held a press conference, accusing the commissioner of accepting a bagful of money from the Pagcor chair. Garcilliano denied the meeting took place, although Newsbreak independently confirmed that it did. The commissioner also said that the bag his aide was seen carrying out of the hotel contained a stuffed toy, not cash. But it didn’t help that Pagcor itself was swirling in controversy for supposedly siphoning funds to the presidential campaign.
Thus, when President Arroyo reappointed Garcillano to the Comelec on June 30, 2004 because the Commission on Appointments had bypassed his nomination before Congress closed earlier that month, the howls of protest were again heard.
Pimentel was understandably livid, as were Namfrel and other NGOs. The Institute for Popular Democracy said that the reappointment was “a sign of a dark future for electoral reforms under the new administration.”
Today Garcillano’s name is back in the limelight. For sure, he must be used to controversy by now. But we’ll have to see whether he will survive this scandal.
feel free to leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.













15 people have left comments
I am a little bit confused why no one has commented here that the voice in the recordings indeed sound like Garcillano’s or more like Ruado’s who is now claiming it? I ask this while everyone seems convinced that the voice is Garcillano’s (as which prompted this post?). Is it not better to analyze the recordings first prior to commenting on Garcis checkered past?
For those who know the people involved (meaning you at pcij, Alecks, Shiela), who do you believe Gary’s voice belongs to?
Uh Sheila, don’t forget the other questionable GMA COMELEC appointee, Manuel Barcelona, who also joined Garcillano and Florentino Tuazon in asking the Supreme Court to disqualify Poe.
[...] t scandal in government: the alleged wire-tapped conversation between President Arroyo and Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. You can download MP3 files of the alleged wire-tapped conversation at t [...]
where is Garci right now? hiding at Gloria’s back. they should definitely come out and depend themselves otherwise they are guilty.
Manong Garci :
Whether you are IN or OUT of the country,
its hightime for you to laundry your “checkered past”.
How? Tell the truth and nothing but the whole truth.
By doing that you are assured of your name in our history.
Who knows from the “commissioner with a checkered past”, PCIJ may call you ” the pawn that check-mated the queen”.
Don’t worry for the presumed loss of material wealth, di naman yan nadadala sa langit.
All right, Manong Garci?
can someone provide a link for Garcillano’s pictures ? baka sakaling mamukhaan if ever.
[...] To know more about Sir Virgilio Garcilliano, try to read PCIJ’s “Commissioner with a checkered past.” [...]
can’t wait to see live on tv how garci will answer questions under oath. maybe we will know more about the man, then . . . .
[...] "It must be admitted that, while Philippine elections are profoundly suspect, if not held in the deepest contempt by the public, the Joint Committee hearing was never able to determine how exactly allegedly corrupt Comelec (Commission on Elections) officials committed fraud in the last election at the alleged behest of the President," the report said. The Joint Committee said the refusal of its star witness, former Elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, to answer questions such as whether or not it was his voice on the tapes has deemed his testimony “irrelevant.” Garcillano finally appeared before the Committee on December 7, 2005, after many months of ignoring summons. [...]
[...] Here are the wiretapped audio recordings and transcripts between Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcilliano. This are all evidences of massive election fraud last 2004 Presidential Elections under the Arroyo Administration. [...]
[...] “Even George W. Bush, who is the President of America, suffers from low rating.” This was the reaction of Eduardo Ermita, Philippine President’s Executive Secretary on the recent Pulse Asia survey, where sixty percent of Filipinos, wanted Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign. Oh, for those foreign readers, she’s our illegitimate President, who was caught talking to an Election Commissioner to rig the votes in the Southern part of the Philippines. [...]
[...] “Even George W. Bush, who is the President of America, suffers from low rating.” This was the reaction of Eduardo Ermita, Philippine President’s Executive Secretary on the recent Pulse Asia survey, where sixty percent of Filipinos, wanted Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign. Oh, for those foreign readers, she’s our illegitimate President, who was caught talking to an Election Commissioner to rig the votes in the Southern part of the Philippines.I have to double-check those bloggers like Juan Cole, John Amato and others. Apart from that, I did strike a conversation with some people in my work place, and known to be die-hard democrats (this is in fact California). It’s important for me to personally know if what causes the Bush administration to have such a low rating, and not just rely on polls around here. All they wanted is to pull the troops out of Iraq, most Americans or rather the majority of them, relied on the bipartisan result of the Senate Committee on Intelligence, that the war in Iraq was based on a faulty premise. [...]
[...] Here are the wiretapped audio recordings and transcripts between Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcilliano. This are all evidences of massive election fraud last 2004 Presidential Elections under the Arroyo Administration. [...]
[...] “Even George W. Bush, who is the President of America, suffers from low rating.” This was the reaction of Eduardo Ermita, Philippine President’s Executive Secretary on the recent Pulse Asia survey, where sixty percent of Filipinos, wanted Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign. Oh, for those foreign readers, she’s our illegitimate President, who was caught talking to an Election Commissioner to rig the votes in the Southern part of the Philippines.I have to double-check those bloggers like Juan Cole, John Amato and others. Apart from that, I did strike a conversation with some people in my work place, and known to be die-hard democrats (this is in fact California). It’s important for me to personally know if what causes the Bush administration to have such a low rating, and not just rely on polls around here. All they wanted is to pull the troops out of Iraq, most Americans or rather the majority of them, relied on the bipartisan result of the Senate Committee on Intelligence, that the war in Iraq was based on a faulty premise. [...]
[...] Garcillano or Garci the Comelec Commissioner President Arroyo allegedly spoke with for several times during the height of the canvassing of votes in the 2004 presidential elections. [...]