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Saturday, May 06, 2006
Gov't to sue RP officials tagged in US spy case
MANILA -- Malacañang said Friday that Philippine officials found involved in plots to overthrow the Arroyo government, based on the testimony of Filipino-American intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo, will be charged with treason or rebellion.
Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said government is watching the espionage case in the US because the information in Aragoncillo's testimony is "critical" to the situation in the Philippines.
Aragoncillo has admitted to a US federal court that he passed US Government secrets to "senior political and government officials" in the Philippines in an attempt to help overthrow President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Former President Joseph Estrada, Senator Panfilo Lacson, and Camarines Sur Representative Arnulfo Fuentebella have been named as "un-indicted co-conspirators" of Aragoncillo. Estrada and Lacson have received legal notice from the US that their conversations were wiretapped in August last year.
Defensor said government is interested in determining the extent of the sensitivity of the information contained in the documents that Aragoncillo obtained from the US government. He said he also wants to know the motivation behind the espionage.
"The telephone conversation is very important. I would think that in the launching of coups and other movements and statements on other issues being brought up by the opposition those documents were utilized for that," he said.
"This is very monumental to the cases to be filed for rebellion and treason against officials of our country and other individuals. Why? Because this is the first time that a legal wiretap was allowed. While we have evidence, we don't have actual legal basis that we have heard them, we saw them or that there were documents presented to strengthen the case of treason or rebellion," he added.
He said government will ask for copies of the documents that Aragoncillo took, plus the wiretap. He said Filipinos in the US who are involved in rebellion case could be extradited and the results of the legal wiretap used to file cases against them.
But Defensor said the Philippine government will not take it against the US that it has such reports because these are "internal to the US government" and that the Philippines also conducts political and economic intelligence on other countries.
He also said he and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. believe that Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao should not be given any legal assistance by the Philippine government because of their alleged involvement in the espionage case.
He said Estrada showed him some of the documents allegedly stolen by Aragoncillo during some of his visits to the former leader's rest house in Tanay, Rizal after the 2004 elections but he did not know then that they were obtained from the US government.
He said he also saw Aragoncillo visiting Estrada twice or thrice at the Veterans Memorial Medical Hospital from 2002 to 2003. (JMR/Sunnex)
(May 6, 2006 issue)
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