Alleba Politics

Wrong Move, Sec. Defensor

August 13th, 2005 at 10:05 pm (General)

DENR Sec. Mike Defensor (aka President Arroyo’s numero uno defender) held a press conference last Friday to present an expert to debunk the authenticity of the “Hello Garci” tapes. The expert is Mr. Barry Dickey an American forensic sound expert, who was (allegedly) hired by Sec. Defensor himself to analyze the tapes.

According to PCIJ, however, Dickey’s findings were inconclusive:

Using waveform and spectrogaphic analysis, the forensic expert pointed to several “anomalies” that cast doubt on the integrity of the recordings. But these “anomalies,” he said, could be the result of “several transfers, which involved the audio being recorded/encoded/decoded by different devices.”

Dickey’s findings were also only categorical as far as the track involving the time code 00:00:33.00 to 00:00:35.00 is concerned, which is associated with a male speech, as being “inconsistent with the rest of the recording.” Anomalies associated with the track referring to the part where “yung dagdag” is mentioned (time code 00:00:29.00 to 00:00:36.00), he said, will require further analysis.

What now, Sec. Defensor? Do you think this “explosive bombshell” which you inexplicably and unnecessarily dropped would help the image of President Arroyo? I think not.

I think this is Sec. Defensor’s desperate effort to cast doubt on the opposition’s impeachment complaints. But he has failed to do so. I think he just managed to dig a deeper grave for his boss by providing the opposition with more ammunition against his boss. If he was really confident that this “bombshell” would clear the name of his boss, then he should just kept his mouth shut for the mean time and handed it over to the defense team of the President for the impeachment case. Now, the opposition (prosecution) already knows their defense. And I would bet all the money I have that they are already taking this “analysis” into account and are preparing to argue against it.

On a lighter note, I was amused by Manuel Quezon III’s commentary on the press conference. I especially liked this exchange between PCIJ Reporter Alecks Pablico and Sec. Defensor:

Defensor (paraphrased here): the impeachment complaint contains so many quotes from audio tracks; we had them checked; at least some are doctored; so, if we had known this two months ago, I would have advised the President not to speak on the subject of the tapes.

He says what the opposition did, was “voice identification,” which he says they (the administration) hasn’t done; then a fast and furious exchange:

Aleks Pablico: We did analysis.

Defensor: No such analysis.

Pablico: We had independent experts…

Defensor: No authentication

Pablico: There was.

Defensor: No.

Pablico: You’re James Bond right, making comments in our blog?

Defensor: (Ignores it)… The Bunye tape didn’t have “dagdag.” I haven’t seen any authentification.

What Defensor unwittingly did is make himself laughable and pathetic. Laughable and pathetic because of his desperate but unsuccessful attempts save the image of the President. Laughable and pathetic because he failed to turn the tide of public opinion against the opposition and even managed to cast more doubt on the President while trying to do so. Laughable and pathetic because he only managed to make the public more interested in the so-called “Hello Garci” tapes.

Right now, Sec. Defensor seems like a teenaged boy fumbling to cover-up a lie.

Sec. Defensor, I suggest, you tend to the environment na lang rather than be embarrassed further. After all, that’s what you were hired for, right?

Bookmark on del.icio.us