In a press conference in Bukidnon, Garcillano said: "Wala akong ginawang cheating." (I did not cheat.)

 

“I have already said everything. But if they want me to tell what they would want me to tell, now that's a different story. But as far as the truth is concerned, ako nakapagsabi na ng totoo. Wala akong ginawang cheating,” he said.

 

Garcillano urged media to refer back to the records to determine who won in the elections in 2004. “The result of the election speaks for that. Ano ba ang resulta ng election?” he said.

 

Garcillano is believed to be the "Garci" in the wiretapped conversations about cheating in the 2004 presidential elections between an elections commissioner and Mrs. Arroyo that came out in the "Hello, Garci" scandal in 2005. 

 

Arroyo had admitted talking to an elections commissioner and apologized but she never said it was Garcillano she talked to. 

 

Garcillano said the controversial wiretapped conversation reportedly happened 10 days after the elections. “Paano kami magpa-plano ng cheating kung after elections na?” he asked. 

 

According to him, the scandal that made him look like a cheater destroyed his reputation.

 

“Ang tao noon nakundisyon na ang utak nila na ako, ganun ang ginawa namin,” he said. “I do not like to be subjected again to public ridicule and humiliations.”

 

“Dapat tayong nasa Pilipinas matuto kung ano ang ginagawa sa eleksiyon. Why? Because some people will just say 'si ganito nag-cheat' without asking in what step na naka-cheat siya? I am not a superman who can cheat by myself to change the result of the election,” he said.

 

 

Garcillano also denied sending feelers to Malacañang of turning against Arroyo. 

 

“There’s no such thing as feelers,” he said, belying a statement made by Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs Ronald Llamas. 

 

Garcillano said someone from Llamas' group sent him a text message saying that businessman Ricky Razon, a well-known ally of Mrs. Arroyo, was already cooperating with the Aquino government. 

 

The message was meant to entice him into turning against Arroyo. 

 

Garcillano said he does not know nor has he ever met Razon. 

 

He said it was the people in Malacañang who have been coming to him and urging him to come out.

 

“People from Malacañang were coming here. They keep on following me,” he said.

 

In a speech he read before the media at the start of the press conference, Garcillano said he already clarified in the newspapers that he did not send feelers to Llamas and added that he has nothing more to say.

 

“I have spoken the truth during the congressional investigations in 2004 and 2005,” he said.

 

 

Garcillano said he is not against the welfare of the country and its people. He is likewise not against the mission of the administration to reform the government.

 

“I had no case. I am not in hiding just like what some of our critics are saying because they are demanding me to come out and speak. But I have spoken enough in the past hearings of the Congress and I have nothing to fear because I was never in any anomaly whatsoever,” he stressed.

 

He also appealed to those in government go “allow this country to move on”.

 

“Kung may gusto silang i-reform, reform. But let us focus on the moving on of this country para ma-improve naman,” he said, adding that “if I could help them especially on elections, pwede akong tumulong sa mga reporma sa mga eleksiyon”. 

 

Arroyo defeated closest rival Fernando Poe Jr. in the presidential elections by 1.1 million votes. Poe filed a protest but died in December 2004. 

 

Several new witnesses, including suspended ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, have recently emerged to support allegations of fraud in the 2004 and 2007 elections.