Chavit's Dud

Posted by Alecks Pabico
PCIJ

IF there's such a thing as a "smoking tape," this is not the one. This one's a dud. 

Chavit Singson and rocker RJ Jacinto could have done a better job by getting professional advice from one of the music pirates at Makati Cinema Square, sound experts whom we talked to say. The alleged phone call, all of 41 seconds where Estrada supposedly plots the assassination of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is "such an amateur job that the pirates are considering suing them," quips Gerry Kaimo, an audiophile and independent record producer.

We know this CD is spurious and are only making the "Chavit X-Tapes" downloadable from this blog for your weekend entertainment pleasure.  We like to second Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago's proposal that all those who have wiretapped tapes have only until July 31 to make them available to the public. Please let us know ASAP so we can get more bandwidth and make it easier for our readers to download them.

The "Chavit X-Tapes" CD contains seven tracks of recordings. Tracks 3, 4 , and 7 are supposedly post-election conversations between former Pres. Joseph Estrada and former Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Joselin Nazareno. Two of these (tracks 4 and 7) are the same conversation (the first longer by four seconds).

All but one track — Track No. 6 — in the recorded conversations appear to be genuine. If that is the case, then it would seem that Estrada was wiretapped, possibly by ISAFP. But most of the conversations in the X-Tapes are innocouous and pathetic, as an imprisoned Erap sounded dejected about the bad news of his friend FPJ's loss in many areas in Mindanao.

Sound experts we consulted are saying that the 6th track is "too clean" to be considered genuine. "The whole thing is made up. It is likely that those who made this got splices of Erap's voice to fit into a script."

Kaimo is even doubtful. He points to the noticeable hiss in the unidentified Estrada caller's conversation, but which disappears in Erap's part. The hiss, he says, could either come from radio frequency interference (airwaves) or electromagnetic interference (existence of electrical appliances). But the suspiciously silent background noise could just as well point to an empty room or recording studio (Was there any coincidence why RJ Jacinto was with Singson during his presscon yesterday?).

Kaimo likewise observed that the man Estrada is talking to sounds like he is reading from his notes.

Carefully listening to the tracks, we also noticed that some of Erap's utterances — "Ano, ano?" "Uhm" and "Ok, ok, sige" — could very well have been taken from the almost six-minute track containing the conversation between Estrada and Nazareno given very similar intonations in Estrada's voice. Check for yourself the following timecodes in track 4 (or 7): 2:52 (for "Ano, ano?"), 4:14 ("Uhm") and 5:53 ("Ok, ok, sige").

Below is the transcript of that suspicious conversation:

Estrada: Hello.

Male: Hello

Estrada: Hello!

Male: Hello, sir.

Estrada: Saan ka na?

Male: Nakauwi na sir.

Estrada: Uhm, bakit?

Male: Tapos na meeting, sir. Good news, okay na kay Ping.

Estrada: Ano? Ano?

Male: Ok na sir. Pumayag na si Sen. Lacson.

Estrada: Ah, ganon?

Male: Ganon na nga, sir. Pag napatalsik na si Pandak at may transition government na, magkakasakit na si Tanda. Pwede na natin ipitin siguro ang Kaliwa, sir.

Estrada: Uhm…

Male: Tuloy na plano, sir. Pwede na i-sacrifice si Tanda, tutal tapos na siya, sir.

Estrada: Ok, ok, sige…