Hello Garci scandal
The scandal and crisis began in June 2005 when audio recordings of a phone call conversation between President Arroyo and then-Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, allegedly talking about the rigging of the 2004 national election results, were released to the public.
Arroyo's most publicized alleged accomplice from the electoral commission, Virgilio Garcillano, was missing for a few months, but returned to the capital in late 2005.
Samuel Ong, a former deputy director of the country's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), declared in a June 10, 2005, press conference [5] that he possessed original recordings of a wiretapped conversation between Arroyo and an official of the Commission on Elections, who was alleged to be Virgilio Garcillano.
The Ong recordings allegedly proved that Arroyo rigged the 2004 national election to maintain her presidency and the political success of her allies.
A second impeachment complaint was filled by Attorney Jose Rizaldo Lopez supplementing the Lozano complaint while stating that only impeachment can address the stock market, peso exchange market, President Arroyo's ratings, fuel price hikes, and playing of alleged wiretapped conversations at the House of Representatives.
[7] During the scandal, polls and surveys conducted by Social Weather Stations, CNN/Time, and Pulse Asia measured public opinion regarding the allegations and other related issues.
[8] A Pulse Asia survey released on Philippine news on July 12 showed that 57% of the people wanted incumbent President Arroyo to resign from office.
On January 25, 2008, Pulse Asia survey (commissioned by Genuine Opposition (GO) per former Senator Sergio Osmeña III) stated that 58% percent of Filipinos in Mindanao believed that President Arroyo cheated in the 2004 Philippine general election.
"[10] Shortly after the scandal broke, Randy David, a nonpartisan columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, cited two excerpts from the Ong recording in an article.
Sheila Coronel, of the Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism, was able to decipher some of the garbled parts of the tape, which allegedly implicated Arroyo in the scandal.
Retired general Francisco Gudani claimed that he can prove military involvement in Arroyo's alleged acts of electoral fraud.
[14] Lines from the Ong tapes became popular cellphone ringtones after they were made public, especially among the youth during the beginning of their school year in June.
[15] The scandal would also be referenced by television personality Joey de Leon during a publicized feud with fellow television personality Willie Revillame surrounding allegations of rigging on ABS-CBN's program Wowowee—Joey jokingly called upon the Department of Trade and Industry to stop probing the Hello Garci scandal, and begin probing "Hello Pappy" instead, in reference to Willie's nickname.
The Ong tape were neutrally authenticated by foreign companies Uniquest (Australia) and Voice Identification (United States).
The protesting public insisted that the tapes and CDs proved electoral fraud, and that Arroyo cheated and rigged the 2004 elections.
The law however is unclear on how to prosecute and convict the sitting official if illegitimacy is the problem, due to allegations of vote rigging.
To some experts, what is unique about the crisis is that it addresses the greater issue of electoral fraud and an allegedly faulty election system that allows cheaters to win and get away with it.
[example needed] These accusations though between them are not new, and are common during propaganda wars, as politically motivated groups use connections in media to promote their side.
During the latter part of the crisis, this changed as the media became generally more critical in delivery, which was beneficial for properly informing viewers about the many sides of the issues.
In response, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned the Arroyo administration for attempting to restrict the airing of the Ong recordings.
Monsod cited three reasons to support her claim that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won the May 2004 presidential race.
These overwhelming successes in districts, provinces, cities and municipalities nationwide could not but have helped the coalition's presidential standard bearer to also garner big votes among most of those constituencies, according to Saludo.
"Then there was the endorsement (albeit last minute -- but this shows that they were jumping on the bandwagon) that Ms. Arroyo received from the Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai.
(PIA Ilocos)[24] On June 27, human rights lawyer Oliver Lozano filed an impeachment case against Arroyo on the grounds of "betrayal of public trust".
Arroyo eventually pressed on with certain reforms, albeit unrelated to the crisis, that included new taxes that will shrink government's fiscal deficit.
Accordingly, confidence in Arroyo declined as explained by Amando Doronila of the Philippine Daily Inquirer who said:[27] "The quashing of the complaints is an empty victory for the administration.
Until the president stands trial where she can defend herself and where it can be shown that the accusations are false and do not constitute impeachable offenses, it would be hard for her to regain public confidence and reestablish the legitimacy of her government.
"The crisis arguably ended with the failure of both the impeachment process and the people power movement to have Arroyo face a public trial.
[28] On February 12, 2008, the Supreme Court, in a preliminary voting, favored the airing of the Garci tapes, thus nullifying the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) order.
