Press Release - Sen. Grace Poe's privilege speech on the 20th anniversary of the Hello Garci scandal

Mr. President, dear colleagues, twenty years ago this month, a phone call changed the course of our country's history. To jog our collective memories, recorded phone calls between a presidential candidate who was then trailing behind the votes, and then-Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, resulted in the biggest electoral crisis that this country has seen.

To be specific, there were around fifteen calls but it was one phone call that echoes in our history forever as "Hello Garci". The ignominy still rings today and its brazenness echoes in eternity.

In "Hello Garci", a leader - who had placed her hand on the Bible to swear before God and people that she will obey the laws of land - was clearly heard shopping for votes to salvage an electoral debacle.

Dito sa Pilipinas, may kasabihan tayo na: walang kandidatong natatalo, puro nadadaya lang. Pero sa pagkakataong ito, hindi lamang nahuli ang magnanakaw sa akto, nag-sorry pa!

The phone call recorded a woman's voice panic-buying for votes; in fact, it recorded a presidentiable nominee, pressing Election Commissioner Garcillano who was on the other end of the line, to produce one million votes.

The call echoed a haggling for more votes. To quote, the transcript would show: "'Yung dagdag, 'yung dagdag."

It was not the polite conversation one would expect between a sitting President and a constitutional officer. To 85 million eavesdropping Filipinos, it confirmed an open secret about our elections - that votes can be bought and, for those that could not be bought, can be changed.

At a time when ballots were manually counted, Garcillano, though he was no tabulating machine, meekly gave his assurance, that the one million votes would be reflected in the Certificates of Canvass (COCs).

True enough, some of the COCs - or now Certificates of Cheating - were later transmitted to Congress, standing as delivery receipts of the votes that were ordered.

And when discrepancies were pointed out during the congressional canvass, they were ignored and buried under an avalanche of "Noted", "Noted", "Noted."

And that was how Filipinos lost the election in 2004; the loser was proclaimed winner. Kung malaki ang tinaya, mas maki