STUNNING BREAK IN GLORIAGATE CONTROVERSY

THE MISTRESS of Technical Sergeant Vidal Doble of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) is testifying before the Senate Committee of Senator RODOLFO BIAZON about a WIRE TAPPING OPERATION undertaken on VIRGILIO O. GARCILLANO and PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO during the 2004 election season. Senators FRANKLIN M. DRILON and ALFREDO LIM are joining in the questioning of young MS. MARIETA SANTOS, who may be to GLORIAGATE what CLARISSA OCAMPO was to the overthrow of JOSEPH ESTRADA.

(1300 SARGEANT TRIPLE?) As Mayet tells it, she is a second mistress of the mis-named Sgt. VIDAL DOBLE, and that she was with him and the mysterious former NBI Deputy Director SAMMY ONG last June during that even more mystifying incident at the San Carlos Seminary along the famous EDSA in Guadalupe. She reveals how ludicrous it was to think that Sgt. Doble was being held there against his will, as the authorities made it appear in order to justify taking Sgt. Doble into custody before he could reveal the awful secret of the Garci tapes. Although she was once removed from the actual recording of conversations between GMA and Garci, she relates how Doble and his team-mates at ISAFP laughed about their assignment to "DO GMA and Garci," with their specialized equipment, "upon orders from above." She describes a "Blue Room" and several other secret surveillance and wire tapping facilities used by Doble and other active military service personnel of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP). She relates how her live-in partner Vidal or "Jeff" Doble took recordings that became known in the Public Domain as the Garci Tapes from ISAFP's raw intel storage and gave it to an Atty. LITO SANTIAGO who in turn gave them to Atty SAMMY ONG. Three affidavits form Santiago, Ong and BISHOP TEODORO BACANI attesting to all these circumstances witnessed by Mayet Santos have been submitted to the Senate Committee. If proven, as I've said before, such illegal wiretapping activities are tantamount to high treason and ought to be punished as such for prostituting the Military to selfish political purposes. There will surely be a regime change around here if it is next proven that that "higher up" was the Palace's occupant. NEWSBREAK fleshes out the all important question of WHO DID THE WIRETAPPING? some more in its Cover Story today.

(1500) THE SENATE ROCKS: I am definitely against a UNICAMERAL Legislature now. I've not seen as good a conviction of a liar by his own self-contradictory words and signed statements as that Judge Moner got today. And it is the first time in a long time to have everyone in one of these legislative investigations have a couple of good simple laughs. As when Senator Biazon was asking Mayet how it felt like when the real MRS. DOBLE was dragged all the way from Mindanao by the Palace Defensor Brigade to set up that fake "rescue" of Sgt. Doble at the San Carlos Seminary. Since she had arrived there with Sgt Doble and Sammy Ong, Mayet could testify credibly to the fact that the unarmed nuns and priests would've had no way of "kidnapping" and "illegally detaining" the Air Force Tactical Sergeant, who was armed with his service .45! All three of the important names mentioned this morning by Mayet will be appearing before the Senate in due time to affirm and explain their sworn affidavits, including Sammy Ong and the person who gave him the tape from Doble, Atty. Lito Santiago. There is also Catholic Bishop Teodoro Bacani, whose Seminary San Carlos is, and who was there throughout the police seige and "rescue" of Sgt. Doble. His should make for some very interesting testimony Human insight from Mayet, is that in text messages to her from Sgt. Doble (who is officially incommunicado within his ISAFP unit), he expresses twinges of conscience and wishes he could be free of it all by just telling the whole truth now. The truth of the San Carlos Seminary incident also includes this revelation, long suspected to be true: that it was the legal wife and children of TSgt Vidal Doble who were being "held hostage" by unknown authorities in order to force him to come out of the Seminary and be put into the omerta of his unit, along with his family. His exact whereabouts are in fact unknown as the authorities won't say where he is being kept or why. Just a feeble ".eck eck...national security...eck eck.."

ALL ROADS LEAD TO AUTOMATION: Senator Rodolfo Biazon has opened up a very substantive topic with Chairman Ben Abalos of the Comelec, (whose avuncular personality is a relief after that stiff-jawed Judge Moner). Interesting, Ben Abalos blames the Supreme Court for putting the kibosh on the Comelec's Automated Counting System in 2003, suspicously just months before the 2004 election season. When all that happened last year, I remember thinking that Abalos and the Comelec was indeed the victim of a deliberate torpedoing of that vast improvement over the current manual election system. In the light of Garci and Gloriagate, the impression is inescapable that the junking of the automated counting system was done because Garci wouldn't have known how to rig that system. With amazing candor, Abalos also agreed with Sen. Biazon that the CRISIS OF ILLEGITIMACY that the Presidency is undergoing is responsible for the political instability in the land. Biazon brings up the possibility of a plebiscite in 2006 and senatorial elections in 2007 in order to pose the problem of restoring the people's confidence in democracy itself. But Abalos insists the current system can be made to work. Abalos doesn't get it. It will be impossible to have another election the same way again after Garci and Gloriagate. Or as Sen. Biazon riposted, "The fact remains, we must elevate the credibiity of the election process." That really does get to the heart of all this.

The bullseye question is from Senator Biazon: "WHERE ARE T/SGT. VIDAL DOBLE & Co.? We'd like to have them come into the Senate to talk to us." Bravo! PONG BIAZON!

RODOLFO BIAZON has become so Senatorial lately, many people may have forgotten he is a Soldier. He used to be addressed as General Rodolfo Biazon of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It's wonderful to see some of our top national leaders finally stand up for the honor of our fighting forces, such as they are. If the Military has been used to advance selfish interests, that is not a thing to take lightly. The picture emerging from today's hearing is pretty ugly. It seems as if the most important of the intelligence services has no concept of security or integrity of its operations, with the girlfriends of the wiretappers freely wandering around "Blue Rooms" full of wonderful lil GIZMOS and the private conversations of the nation's leaders as accessible as a bawdy ballad in a karaoke bar. This is nuts. We must cherish our Military men and women and rescue them from the clutches of the political Mafias that run the country and dishonor their service and sacrifices. I hear T/Sgt Vidal Doble is a whiz with microelectronics and antennae. He should be helping to hunt down Dulmatin and the Bali Bombers instead of spying on Garci.