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Ong appeared at an evening news conference at a swank Makati club called
by the opposition. It coincided with the announcement by Armed Forces
Chief of Staff Gen. Efren Abu over lunch with reporters that the military
intelligence arm, ISAFP, is under investigation in connection with the
wiretapping allegations.
“This is a serious matter,” Abu said, but he declined to
say who among the Isafp staff are under investigation. “Everyone
is a suspect,” he said.
On June 8, Malaca±ang announced that ISAFP chief Brig. Gen. Marlu
Quevedo had been sacked. No explanation was made. |
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Immediately after the revelation, Ong sought refuge at a
Catholic seminary after police attempted to arrest him.
Looking woozy and saying he had been sleepless the last five days since
the bizarre tales of the tapes emerged, Ong
said he came out because he felt his life was in danger and thought he should
let the people know they were robbed in the last elections. He called on
Ms Arroyo to resign.
“I am calling on Susan Roces because this
tape would show that her husband was cheated," Ong said, referring
to the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. who lost to Ms Arroyo. Opposition politicians
broadcast appeals before the news conference for supporters to mass at the
Makati club, but only several hundred showed up by nightfall.
Ong waved before a packed crowd of reporters one of what he said were four
“master tapes” given to him by an ISAFP agent. He said the three
other tapes were “in the hands of worthy brothers.”
Ong said the tapes contain the wiretapped telephone conversation between
Ms Arroyo and Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Garcillano has
denied his is the voice of the male speaker in the wiretap.
Malaca±ang and Alan Paguia earlier this week released CDs containing
the alleged telephone wiretaps purportedly showing that Ms Arroyo was pressing
for a one-million vote election victory. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said
release of the tapes was part of an opposition plot to destabilize Ms Arroyo’s
administration.
“This tape is the mother of all tapes circulating
since Monday,” Ong said, waving a cassette. He said the tape contains
the hacked telephone conversation and challenged authorities to make an
inventory of ISAFP files and they will know that four master tapes are missing.
Asked about Ong’s statement, Rear Adm. Tirso Danga, deputy chief of
staff for intelligence, said there are no missing tapes in ISAFP.
“Wiretapping
is not part of our job,” he said. Then just as reporters were beginning
to throw their questions, Danga walked out of the room and left on board
his van.
“If I won’t come out with the truth, I pity the
Filipino,” Ong said.
Ong said he was not part of any political affiliation, though he was surrounded
by opposition personalities during the press conference at the Metroclub
in Makati City, often used by United opposition in its assemblies and meetings.
Saying his revelation may cost him his life, Ong sought the protection of
the Church for his safety.
“Now that I have come out, I am dead
meat. They could do everything to me, and worse, they could even kill me,"
said Ong.
After answering a few questions, Ong was whisked away by opposition politicians
in a dark green van. As his vehicle drove out of Metroclub’s gates,
some 200 opposition supporters cheered and chanted a call for Ms Arroyo
to resign.
After he disappeared, news reports said that Ong had holed up at the San
Carlos Seminary on Edsa. Several dozen politicians went to the seminary,
along with reporters, but none of the opposition spokespersons were able
to confirm Ong’s presence there.
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