In a pre-taped interview that Sen. Panfilo Lacson showed before the Senate last August 21, dismissed Air Force T/Sgt. Vidal Doble revealed that he was part of a military intelligence team that monitored the conversations of several political personalities during the 2004 presidential elections, including President Arroyo, who ran for election at the time, and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

Doble said he was forced to keep quiet about the wiretapping scandal in 2005, when it broke, because his family was detained during that period in the basement of the quarters of then Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Efren Abu.

But Armed Forces chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. today said there’s no basement in the chief of staff’s quarters. This raises questions on the integrity of Doble’s testimony.

Newsbreak had been to the chief of staff’s quarters. A few months after Abu became chief of staff in 2004, word got around that he was having his quarters renovated. The subtext of that information was that he was doing it for vanity’s sake.

We challenged an Army officer close to Abu to show us if indeed the renovation was necessary. Thus, we were allowed inside the quarters, specifically the ground floor where the aides’ rooms were getting a much-needed scrub. We saw carpenters building walls to give the aides more privacy and putting up a separate room that would serve as their office. We saw a small kitchen, too.

There was no basement.

But here’s the catch: The ground floor has the “feel” of a basement. That’s because the chief of staff and his family don’t use the ground floor; it’s strictly for the officers and men working for them. We remember it also to have a low ceiling, and a little cramped.

As far as we can remember, a visitor from the driveway has two entry points to the house (also referred to as the “White House”): the main door or the staircase from the garden that goes straight up to the second floor.

The main door leads to the ground floor, where the officers’ quarters are. A staircase at the foot of the main door leads to the second floor, where the family living room is. It’s on the second floor where the chief of staff and his family live and where they dine and entertain guests.

So was Doble lying when he referred to a basement where Abu supposedly held his family? We wouldn’t fault him for a lapse in judgment—for mistaking the ground floor for a basement.—Glenda M. Gloria

Related:

In the Shadows (Who wiretapped Garci and President Arroyo?)

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