BERROYA: LACSON BEHIND COUP PLOT:
The opposition, led by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, is plotting to
stage mass actions disguised as El Shaddai prayer rallies
and designed to culminate in the "Edsa 4" between
October 30 and Nov. 4, Chief Supt. Reynaldo Berroya said yesterday.
Berroya, former intelligence chief of the Philippine
National Police and now director of the Central Luzon police command,
made the disclosure in an attempt to belie claims by the opposition
Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) that police and military officials
had hatched a destabilization campaign
code-named "Black October."
"They're reversing the situation," Berroya, Lacson's arch-enemy,
said the PMP.He said this was so because Lacson was "desperate to
destabilize the administration from within to
(deflect) attention from his criminal activities."From a number of
interviews, members of the intelligence community and the opposition
appear to be discussing at least two supposed destabilization plots.
One, called "Holy Brother," purportedly involves a charismatic
religious leader who will supposedly provide the required "people power."
The other - which according to the opposition, is a plan by
pro-administration officials - is the so-called Black October.
An "intelligence report," copies of which circulated in Camp Crame
as early as last week, points to disgraced
ex-President Joseph Estrada as a main plotter.
Inquirer, 10/25/2001
SENATE TOLD: FBI ON TO PING ACCOUNT:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed
the existence of Sen. Panfilo Lacson's secret bank account in the US,
the lawyer of Angelo Mawanay told a Senate inquiry yesterday.
At the same hearing, a policeman corroborated Mary Ong's claims
that Lacson's group used their position to manipulate their subordinates
into becoming runners for the Hong Kong Triad.
Lawyer Argee Guevarra said the FBI confirmed the existence
of Lacson's dollar account in San Francisco,
supposedly where the senator stashes away proceeds from illegal
activities like kidnapping for ransom, smuggling and drug trafficking.
Material witness Senator Robert Barbers scheduled the resumption
of the hearings on Lacson's illegal activities as soon as the senators come
back from
a 16-day recess on Nov. 5. He declined to categorically
confirm if Philippine authorities had already secured the FBI verification.
"But I expect that they have already, because we've given him enough time,
" Barbers said. National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)
Director Reynaldo Wycoco just returned from a mission to the US in
a bid to secure the FBI verification.
The verification process had been slowed down because of the
US government's concentration on the anti-terrorist campaign being.
Meantime, SPO1 Mabini Rosale corroborated Ong's account of
how Lacson's group used their subordinates in the PNP as runners for
their drug trafficking activities.
Ong had said Rosale was part of Lacson's network in the PNP,
although there was no clear evidence
that the conspiracy reached that high. Speaking before the
Senate committee on public order hearing the allegations against Lacson,
Rosale said Supt. John Campos regularly asked him to deliver packages
of shabu to Francis Duran, a former policeman. "I thought it was part of
legitimate operation to penetrate the triad. When I realized, it was not,
I stopped delivering to Duran and Campos didn't ask me anymore,"
Rosale told the panel.
Mla. Times, 10/23/2001
SURVEY: LACSON, MIKE ARROYO BADLY DAMAGED:
Filipinos are withholding judgment on opposition
Sen. Panfilo Lacson and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo,
both of whom are facing allegations of corruption,
according to the results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS)
survey. But the nationwide survey, conducted on Sept. 1-18, 2001,
found that the reputations of both Lacson and Arroyo were
"badly damaged" by the negative
publicity arising from the allegations.
Lacson's net trust rating (the difference between the
percentage of those who trust him and those who distrust him)
plunged to negative 13 percent while that of Arroyo
dropped to negative 8 percent.
But many respondents also distrusted Lacson's accusers,
according to the SWS.
On the accusation that Lacson amassed hidden wealth abroad,
the SWS survey found that 32 percent of the 1,200 respondents
believed it; 21 percent did not believe it; and 47 percent said
they did not know enough about it to make a judgment.
Lacson, a former police chief during the Estrada administration,
was accused by military intelligence chief Col. Victor Corpus
of amassing millions of dollars from criminal activities like
kidnapping-for-ransom, drug trafficking and smuggling.
On the accusation that Arroyo received a bribe, 21 percent of the
respondents believed it; another 21 percent did not believe it;
and 58 percent said they did not know enough about it.
A former Palace correspondence secretary had claimed that
Arroyo allegedly received a bribe from a telecommunications
company. But she later clarified that she only heard from
somebody that Arroyo had received the bribe.
While many respondents suspended judgment on
Lacson and Arroyo, the public trust ratings of the two men
suffered big declines. The SWS said 30 percent of the
respondents trusted Lacson while 43 percent distrusted him,
giving him a net trust rating of negative 13.
It was a sharp drop from his net trust ratings of 24 percent
on Feb. 2-7 and 14 percent on Jan. 27-29.
When he was the head of the Philippine National Police
in 1998-2000, Lacson's satisfaction ratings were usually
more than 40 percent, according to the SWS.
The SWS said the upper and middle classes were
the most convinced about the accusations against Lacson.
A total of 57 percent of the respondents from these
classes believed that Lacson had hidden wealth abroad.
But unlike in last year's juetengate that led to the impeachment
trial of Estrada, the perception of the poorest, Class E,
that Lacson had hidden wealth was not much different from
those of the upper and middle classes,according to the SWS.
Arroyo obtained a 28-percent trust rating compared
with a 36-percent distrust rating, giving him a net trust
score of negative 8. The latest accusation against the
First Gentleman was not included in the SWS survey.
On Lacson's accusers, the SWS said 32 percent of the
respondents said they trusted Corpus while 36 percent
said they distrusted him, giving Corpus a net trust
rating of negative 4. Mary Ong, alias Rosebud,
had a 31-percent trust rating and a 38-percent
distrust rating for a net trust rating of negative 8.
Danny Devnani had a 22-percent trust rating and
a 4-percent distrust rating for a net rating of negative 19.
Angelo "Ador" Mawanay obtained a 22-percent trust
rating and a 45-percent distrust rating, giving him a net
trust rating of negative 23. Inquirer,
10/10/2001
LACSON: PRESIDENT'S HUSBAND MISUSED SWEEPSTAKES FUNDS:
Beleaguered Senator Panfilo Lacson, who continues to face
charges of involvement in various high crimes when
he was national police chief, on Wednesday accused
First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo of
"more than sharing power" with
President Gloria-Macapagal-Arroyo, whose eight-month-old
administration he described as "powerfully corrupt".
Lacson accused Arroyo of heading a
"Department of the Underground" which he aid was the
"new dangerous office in government" responsible for
"assigning cronies to positions of power and making
money out of them",among others.
In a privilege speech titled "Gloria's Underground Department",
Lacson said "the Department of the Underground has
no parallels in history." Much of the points raised by Lacson
in his speech were similar to those in the supposed draft speech
of Senate minority floor leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.,
copies of which were leaked to the media on Monday.
Pimentel has denied being the author of the draft speech
or that he intended to deliver it.
In his speech, Lacson accused Arroyo of making
the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office a "cash cow",
particularly in funding the election campaign of four of the
administration's senatorial candidates.
Lacson named former senator Ernesto Herrera and
former Bulacan provincial governor Robert Pagdanganan
as among the four People Power Coalition candidates who
benefited from a supposed media campaign with a budget of
250 million pesos (nearly five million dollars).
The draft speech named the other two as Senators Joker Arroyo
and Juan Flavier. He named former PCSO media consultant
Robert Rivero as his "informant" on the issue,
and said the latter would soon come out of hiding to tell all he
knew. Inquirer, 10/04/2001
GARGANERA BACKS UP ROSEBUD'S TESTIMONY:
A team of former narcotics operatives led by
Supt. John Campos earned at least
7 million pesos a month from the
street sales of illegal drugs
that they had earlier confiscated,according
to Remus Garganera, one of the witnesses
of military intelligence against
former NarcGroup officials.
Garganera, 38, on Sunday said three
NarcGroup policemen remitted an average
amount of 500,000 pesos "every other day"
as proceeds from the alleged trafficking.
He identified the police officers only by
their surnames--Tuvera, Castro and Rosale--who,
he said, were under Supt. Francisco Villaroman.
Garganera is expected to corroborate
allegations by former narcotics
civilian agent Mary "Rosebud" Ong that ranking
police officers associated with
Sen. Panfilo Lacson Jr.
used to engage in drug trafficking.
Garganera, now in the protective custody of the
Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces
of the Philippines (Isafp),
is also expected to release during the
hearing an affidavit he executed supporting
Ong's allegations, according to
his legal counsel Jocelle Batapa.
The witness said he sought refuge at Isafp after
receiving threats from a Bacolod City-based drug lord,
who allegedly belonged to the group of Lacson and Chief
Supt. Reynaldo Acop, former NarcGroup head.
Garganera said he had personal knowledge of the alleged
recycling of shabu(methamphetamine hydrochloride)
and alleged abduction of suspected Hong Kong
triad members by narcotics agents led by Acop,
Campos and Villaroman. The witness said he worked
for Campos either as a "bagman" or a "warehouseman"
for drug transactions from May 1998 to May 1999.
For about two months during that time,
he was tasked to distribute shabu to police assets,
who sold the recycled drugs in the streets, he claimed.
He said he would collect the proceeds afterward,
and deliver them to Campos at a house in Paranaque.
Posing as local drug lords, undercover agents Campos
and Ong bought shabu from triad members as part
of the NarcGroup's anti-narcotics operations,
Garganera said.
The transactions usually took place in hotels, he added.
The witness claimed that the money he collected
from the policemen was turned over to Campos.
Recalling conversations he allegedly had with Campos,
Garganera said the team recycled shabu to raise
funds for the anti-drug operations.
He said Acop demanded the return of the
budget for the case plans,including interest.
Garganera said he stopped being Campos' bagman
when the police officer asked him to keep
watch over suspected triad members allegedly abducted by
NarcGroup agents and kept in various safe houses.
Inquirer, 10/02/2001
