Cruz's Column

As I See It : What's wrong with Mike Defensor?

Neal Cruz opinion@inquirer.com.ph
Inquirer News Service

"WHAT'S happening to Mike?" a friend asked me last weekend. He was referring, of course, neither to Big Mike A nor Little Mikey, but to tiny Mike Defensor who is trying to look big in the eyes of President Macapagal-Arroyo. Mike Defensor it was who called a press conference last Friday to say that the "Hello Garci" tape presented by lawyer Alan Paguia was "not authentic." To prove his point, he presented a technical report by an American expert and a Filipino self-styled "audio expert."

"It is my opinion," reported the American "expert," one Barry Dickey, "based on the examination of the copy provided, that several anomalies exist which question the integrity of (the recordings)." Mike obviously expected to be hailed "a hero" for his efforts. Instead, he became a laughingstock. Even defenders of GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and, therefore, his allies, are laughing.

Rep. Prospero Pichay, one of GMA's staunchest defenders, dismissed Mike's report as "rubbish." "He (Mike) should be concentrating on the environment department's reforestation program instead of trying to prove himself a sound expert," Pichay twitted him, adding that the report has "no additional probative value." Paguia, reportedly the source of the tapes given to Dickey, had earlier admitted that he edited the tapes, Pichay said. The job of investigating the authenticity of the tapes belongs to the National Bureau of Investigation, not to Defensor, he added.

The NBI itself revealed that Mike's Filipino "audio expert" seems to be one of those "witnesses for sale," whose tribe has suddenly mushroomed here. According to an Inquirer story, the "expert," Jonathan Tiongco, had earlier presented himself as a witness to the NBI, but the NBI rejected him. Tiongco then gave his affidavit to reporters. When reporters asked him about the charges of murder against him, he replied that media should not look into that part of his life.

It was Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes who revealed that Tiongco was facing "numerous murder, estafa and extortion charges." Tiongco had earlier filed murder, kidnapping and graft charges against Reyes and anticrime crusader Teresita Ang See. Tiongco accused the latter of staging the kidnapping of Chinoys.

Tiongco had also presented himself to a senior Department of Justice official. "I sensed there was something wrong with him," the official said of Tiongco. "I called the NBI and they warned me against (believing) what he was saying."

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, another staunch defender of GMA, said he himself was "reluctant to believe" Tiongco.

This shadowy past of Tiongco Mike Defensor either did not know or, knowing, disregarded. And so Defensor still decided to use him. Result: Nakuryente siya. (He got it wrong.)

"Mike is like the bullfrogs in that old fable," my friend said. "He is inflating himself to look bigger than the other frogs in GMA's pond. One of these days, he will just burst from too much hot air."

Mike's caper does look like an act of desperation. It is incredible why he wasted time and money (taxpayers' money appropriated to his department?) to fly to the United States and hire an American sound technician to examine tapes that—their source himself, Paguia, admitted—were edited.

The tapes were taken by Paguia from an original that played at least three hours long—the tape supposedly now with former NBI Deputy Director Sammy Ong. Paguia said he edited it and provided a narration to make the listener understand the contents better. Therefore, any technician will find them "not authentic." Elementary. Any damn fool will know that. Except Mike.

The other tapes that Sen. Panfilo Lacson and former Sen. Francisco Tatad had sent to Australia and the United States for examination have been declared "authentic." To remove any doubt, it should be the Sammy Ong tape that should be authenticated not just by any doohickey "expert," but by the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Scotland Yard.

But is that still necessary? President Macapagal-Arroyo herself has confessed that she talked on the phone to a "Comelec official" while the votes were still being counted. For that, she has apologized. Her own lawyer admitted that the official was Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Some Comelec officials have admitted that they were invited for dinner to the home of the President in La Vista, Quezon City. It was during this dinner, held before the elections—during which GMA reportedly asked the help of the Comelec officials—that GMA's kumare and kabalen, Lilia Pineda, wife of suspected jueteng lord Bong Pineda, distributed envelopes with money in GMA's presence, according to Michaelangelo Zuce. All the persons concerned denied Zuce's claim.

Even without Zuce's testimony, the mere fact that GMA invited Comelec officials to dinner in her home and talked on the phone to a Comelec commissioner—never mind what they talked about—is already a grave impropriety that makes her unfit to be President and bolsters the suspicion that she and others cheated in the last elections.

She was a candidate and anybody knows that a candidate talking to Comelec officials during an election is highly improper and unethical in the same way that a judge should not talk to a litigant with a pending case in his sala.

By the way, it is really the practice of GMA to invite people to lunch or dinner to ask for their help. Recently, as part of her media blitz to improve her public image, she invited Pampango journalists for lunch at Malacañang, during which she asked for their help. For ethical reasons, some of the journalists did not want to go, but they were persuaded by Malacañang flunkies to attend. GMA probably knew that the affair was unethical because the journalists were let in not through the front entrance but through a side door.