NO PERJURY WHEN DOBLE REVERSED HIS TESTIMONY ABOUT WIRETAPPING SCANDAL -- PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today debunked the criticisms of some administration senators that former military intelligence agent Vidal Doble perjured himself by turning around from his 2005 testimony before the House of Representatives that he was not involved in any wiretapping activity during his stint at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Pimentel said that just because Doble has admitted before three Senate investigating panels that he was one of the ISAFP operatives who wiretapped targetted political personalities during the 2004 elections - contradicting his House testimony on the matter - does not make his new testimony invalid and without credibility.

"It is not unusual for a witness to change his testimony. As a lawyer who has long been practicing criminal law, I can say that a witness may give a new version of his testimony depending on the circumstances," he said.

Pimentel said the truthfulness of the new testimony will be determined on the basis of the facts and details he will present.

He said that Doble's revised testimony will carry more weight and be more believable if there are other witnesses who could corroborate it.

"But I understand that Doble is just one of the many witnesses who will be presented at the hearings," he said.

Pimentel also brushed aside the statement of Sen. Joker Arroyo that the inquiry on the "Hello Garci tape" controversy should be discontinued after hearing the testimony of Doble whom Arroyo branded a "polluted source."

He said there is a move for the blue ribbon committee, committee on defense and committee on constitutional amendments to summon Undersecretary Remedios "Medy" Poblador of the Office of the President to shed light on the alleged Palace's attempt to silence Doble about the wiretapping scandal.

In his Senate testimony Friday, Doble said his wife, Arlene, pointed to a certain "Medy" - who turned out to be Labrador - as the person who offered to extend help when she and their two children were brought to the residential quarters of the chief-of-staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on June 13, 2005.

In a letter to the Senate, Balanga Bishop Socrates Villegas identified Undersecretary Labrador who is connected to the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, as the one who called him up by cellphone and requested him to fetch Doble from the San Carlos Seminary in Guadalupe, Makati City where he and former National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Sammy Ong temporarily sought refuge following the expose on the wiretapped conversations between Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. -o0o-