Wiretapping device found near Aquino’s home

PHILIPPINES: Repairmen working near the home of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino found a tape recorder and alleged wiretapping device on her line in a telephone switching box, Philippine officials said Thursday.

Aquino, 74, a political icon who restored democracy in the Philippines after leading a 1986 “people power” revolt with mass protests, said she had suspected her phone was bugged “ever since the martial law” period in the 1970s.

“I’ve been through the worst times before,” she told reporters. “All of us in the opposition then were almost sure our phones were bugged. Even when I was president, there was some wiretapping also.”

She did not say who she thought might be wiretapping her phone.

Quezon City police chief Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula said police were investigating and plan to question the phone repairmen. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. confirmed in a statement its maintenance crew recovered “an instrument which appeared to be a tape recorder attached to a black box” in the cross-connect cabinet near Aquino’s home.

“Upon further investigation, the PLDT crew discovered that the black box to which the ... tape recorder was attached was connected to the telephone line installed at the residence of ex-President Corazon Aquino,” it said.

The company said it was conducting its own investigation.

The military denied involvement.

“One thing is definite: There is no such effort by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to bug the former president,” spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro told reporters.

“This could be the handiwork of some groups with interests that only they know of,” he said.

Manila, Thursday, AP