Validation Of The Garci Tapes
If there was one thing I learned while employed in the law firm of the late great Senator Raul Roco, it is to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to a legal problem. While the law and its varied rules and regulations may take precedence, other sciences should equally be brought to bear on any given subject.
Which brings us to the Garci tapes. Practically everybody has been caught up with the external validation of the Garci tapes as if the falsity of the conversations will be resolved once the tapes are considered inadmissible. Mike Defensor, in his usual amateurish attempts at damage control, brought out a technical expert with a string of cases, only to have his technical expert debunked.
The argument the tapes must be externally validated in order to determine the authenticity of the tapes is a valid one. But it applies with greater force to those tapes whose voices we do not know, not the Garci tapes where the authors of the voices are public figures and clearly identifiable, the president’s voice being the most prominent, she admitting as much that she spoke to a COMELEC official at the height of the elections. To hear congressmen talk about splicing and technical issues re the Garci tapes where there are really no substantial squabble on those points is a waste of intellectual discourse and an excercise in sophistry.
The insistence therefore by pro-GMA people that one has to go through external validation of the tapes is an argument to obfuscate the obvious complicity of the president to subvert the electoral will of the people.
Which brings me to Professor Randy David’s discussion on the internal validation of the Garci Tapes. According to the good professor, authenticity of taped conversations is not limited to the externalities to comply with legal requirements. Rather, the truth of the tapes can be independently determined by reviewing the patterns of conversations between the protagonists in the tapes.
It is this simple yet convincing presentation of Prof. David’s argument that the concept of internal validation must be accorded the same evidentiary weight as external validation. His explanation of the consistency of the conversations and the logic behind the cryptic dialogues between the president and Garci yields to a scientific certainty that the voices are those of Garci and the president. For just as much as external authentication is matter of expert opinion, so does the justification, study, and process of internal validation a matter of expertise which can be permitted under our Rules of Court
Thus far, no contrary expert or opinion has been leveled against Prof. Randy David. His conclusion appears to be impeccable. And that makes compelling reason for the legislature to secure the attendance of Prof. David to explain the sociological relevance, the science behind human conversations in general and the Garci tapes in particular.
To do so would bolster the case against Garci and this presidency. And that is why Garci, the fount of electoral evil, was hid in the first place. But in doing so, they forgot a line by the English poet, William Cowper: “Absence of proof is not proof of absence”.
And that will haunt them, sooner rather than later, I hope.
Which brings us to the Garci tapes. Practically everybody has been caught up with the external validation of the Garci tapes as if the falsity of the conversations will be resolved once the tapes are considered inadmissible. Mike Defensor, in his usual amateurish attempts at damage control, brought out a technical expert with a string of cases, only to have his technical expert debunked.
The argument the tapes must be externally validated in order to determine the authenticity of the tapes is a valid one. But it applies with greater force to those tapes whose voices we do not know, not the Garci tapes where the authors of the voices are public figures and clearly identifiable, the president’s voice being the most prominent, she admitting as much that she spoke to a COMELEC official at the height of the elections. To hear congressmen talk about splicing and technical issues re the Garci tapes where there are really no substantial squabble on those points is a waste of intellectual discourse and an excercise in sophistry.
The insistence therefore by pro-GMA people that one has to go through external validation of the tapes is an argument to obfuscate the obvious complicity of the president to subvert the electoral will of the people.
Which brings me to Professor Randy David’s discussion on the internal validation of the Garci Tapes. According to the good professor, authenticity of taped conversations is not limited to the externalities to comply with legal requirements. Rather, the truth of the tapes can be independently determined by reviewing the patterns of conversations between the protagonists in the tapes.
It is this simple yet convincing presentation of Prof. David’s argument that the concept of internal validation must be accorded the same evidentiary weight as external validation. His explanation of the consistency of the conversations and the logic behind the cryptic dialogues between the president and Garci yields to a scientific certainty that the voices are those of Garci and the president. For just as much as external authentication is matter of expert opinion, so does the justification, study, and process of internal validation a matter of expertise which can be permitted under our Rules of Court
Thus far, no contrary expert or opinion has been leveled against Prof. Randy David. His conclusion appears to be impeccable. And that makes compelling reason for the legislature to secure the attendance of Prof. David to explain the sociological relevance, the science behind human conversations in general and the Garci tapes in particular.
To do so would bolster the case against Garci and this presidency. And that is why Garci, the fount of electoral evil, was hid in the first place. But in doing so, they forgot a line by the English poet, William Cowper: “Absence of proof is not proof of absence”.
And that will haunt them, sooner rather than later, I hope.
posted by Edwin Lacierda | 1:56 AM
1 Comments:
Hope you caught that bit with Miriam laying the groundwork for IMMUNITY for Garci. It's the beginning of "closing the book" on Garci. Btw, MLQ3 sent me a link and have a look at what some mean people are doing to that nice young lady Patricia Evangelista. I was so mad I put in a comment. Where do minds like this come from Ed?
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