FINAL REPORT - Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

-- Michaelangelo Zuce testified again before the Senate on electoral fraud
-- Army Capt. Marlon Mendoza testified before the Senate on election
anomalies in the 2004 elections, submitting his Affidavit dated August 6,
2005, corroborating the testimony of Michaelangelo Zuce, and thus
likewise the Garci Tapes
Aug 12, 2005 – jueteng witness against the Arroyo family Ferdinand Gerardo recanted
his incriminating statements on the ANC Channel but was cut short by the
emergency press conference held by Environment Secretary Michael Defensor;
-- in that emergency press conference at the Sulo Hotel, Defensor stated that a
portion of the Garci Tapes containing President Arroyo’s voice was
spliced to convert the word “Binalbag” to “Dagdag, dagdag” as well
as change the sentence “Mananalo ba si FPJ by 1M?” to “Mananalo
ba ako by 1M?,” and thereby confirmed that “that is the voice of the
President but that is not the President talking.” He presented
Jonathan Tiongco, an expert sound engineer, who confirmed that the
Garci Tapes were spliced, and likewise referred to American expert Barry
Dickey, referred by Tiongco, as saying there were “anomalies” in the
Paguia tapes submitted to the House which he had examined 48
-- Jaime Sarthou, one of the expert sound engineers to be supposedly
presented by Sec. Defensor in this press conference, turned out to
have been misled, such that he immediately left the venue. He later
recounted in his sworn statement dated February 26, 2006:
“14. Sometime in August 22, 2005, a certain Jonathan Tiongco
called me and asked me to be part of a team of audio
experts that will be hired by Sec. Mike Defensor to analyze
the Garci CDs. I was supposed to be given by Sec. Defensor
tracks of CDs to analyze.
15. I went to the meeting place expecting a briefing, as I was told,
on what we were supposed to do and the tracks we were
supposed to study. I met with Sec. Defensor and to my
surprise a press conference immediately ensued where
Mr. Tiongco presented his findings that the Garci CDs
were spliced and tampered with.
16. However, in my capacity as recording engineer, I did not
find any basis to support the findings of Jonathan
Tiongco. I find the CD he presented to be substantially
different from the other CDs. The files that were
presented contained splices and anomalies for us to
48
When anchor Karmina Constantino asked, “So you admit that the tapes show those of GMA and Garcillano?”
Sec. Defensor did not answer but instead mouthed long, irrelevant sentences to the effect that the impeachment
complaint is based on falsities, whether using the Samuel Ong, Paguia, or other version of the 3-hour Garci Tapes.
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