Witness Assailed

Gonzalez doubts audio expert's credibility

Tetch Torres
INQ7.net

(UPDATE) THE DEPARTMENT of Justice (DoJ) has doubts over the credibility of an audio-recording expert Malacañang presented to media Friday who claimed that controversial wiretapped recordings had been altered.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Jonathan Tiongco had visited his office twice this year offering his expertise to determine if the alleged conversation between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was authentic.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Michael Defensor said in a news conference Friday that Malacañang would ask Congress to throw out the impeachment case against President Arroyo after presenting findings by Tiongco and US experts dismissing the tapes as digitally altered.

"The tapes, as we have clearly shown, have been spliced and I dare the opposition to prove this otherwise," said Defensor, adding that Malacañang would present to the justice committee of the House of Representatives a technical study of the tapes to prove they had been "spliced."

The house committee is conducting an inquiry on the wiretapping, which opposition legislators believe would lend credence to their claims Arroyo cheated in the May 2004 presidential polls.

Gonzalez said Tiongco, a digital sound engineer, offered materials to buttress his claims that the audiotapes were tampered.

"I just told him to leave whatever he had and I will study [it]," Gonzalez said at a press conference, adding that Tiongco even offered his services to the National Bureau of Investigation to help in the probe.

In an affidavit detailing his credentials, Tiongco claimed he was recruited as intelligence consultant and deep penetration agent for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in 2000.

He also said he was secretly trained in forensic examination of counterfeit audio material and had been assigned on a few "high risk" and confidential operations to infiltrate big triads in Hong Kong and Macau.

"He might be trying to over blow himself to convince people on his expertise, but the thing is if he is an expert whether he boasts about it or not," Gonzalez said.

But Tiongco brush aside Gonzalez's statements.

Tiongco, who first appeared in the Senate in May when he opposed the confirmation of Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, said Gonzalez is just "sourgraping," adding that his findings were even confirmed by US-based sound forensic expert Barry Dickey.

In a phone interview with INQ7.net, he said all the credentials he claimed, including working on "high risk" assignments and confidential operations were all supported by documents.

Department of Justice