Ador is crazy — Lina

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina called yesterday "crazy" an alleged civilian agent of the disbanded Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), who had linked Sen. Panfilo Lacson to the Dacer-Corbito murders and implicated Lina’s brother in the illegal drugs trade.

"If you will take him seriously, you will lose your sanity," Lina told reporters at Camp Crame in Quezon City yesterday. "He is out of his mind. He is lying and he is lying through his teeth. Whoever is coaching him should be identified."

But Angelo Mawanay, alias Ador, told reporters yesterday Lacson had ordered him to deliver drugs to Lina’s brother, Bert and former Metro Manila police commander Director Edgar Aglipay.

Ador said he backed off from the illegal operation because of the high risk involved, and that he had been on the run and hiding in different places since then.

However, Aglipay told The STAR yesterday: "I don’t know him (Ador). I think people behind him should be unmasked."

Aglipay said there is a "deeper motive" behind Ador’s effort to try to destroy several personalities, which he described as a smear campaign.

Lina said Ador was trying to cast a cloud of doubt on government investigations of certain personalities behind smuggling, drug trafficking and other criminal activities.

"We will not be immobilized by those baseless accusations," he said. "We will continue to condemn them,"

Lina said his brother, Bert is a legitimate businessman who is the Philippine licensee of the world’s biggest courier service.

Lina said his brother is thinking of filing charges against Ador for sullying his reputation.

"Several names and personalities are dragged into these unsubstantiated accusation," he said.

Ador also accused Lacson and other former PAOCTF members of involvement in the killing of Edgar Bentain, the close-circuit TV operator, who sneaked out a video showing then Vice President Joseph Estrada gambling with friends at a casino operated by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

Ador accused Jude Estrada, a son of the ousted president, as the one who financed the alleged P15-million operation to kidnap and kill Bentain.

Ador also linked Lacson to the alleged destabilization efforts against the Arroyo administration, which was said to include a rash of bank robberies and kidnappings.

Col. Victor Corpus, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), told radio station dzBB yesterday he has ordered a full-blown investigation on the allegations of Ador.

"We are studying his statement," he said. "The investigation is not yet conclusive."

Ador was turned over to the ISAFP by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) last Monday.

Corpus also denied Lacson’s allegations that he was part of a "grand plan" to destroy the senator’s reputation, saying that Ador was a "walk-in" witness.

"I have no personal grudge against (Senator) Lacson," he said. "(But) the intelligence community has long received these reports on his alleged connection with highly-syndicated crimes. With or without him (Ador), all allegations linking Lacson to criminal activities are inclined to the same direction."

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco told reporters the bureau will immediately make public the outcome of Ador’s lie detector test and the results of his investigation.

"We will immediately forward the results to all news media as soon as the report is completed and the country can rest assured that the final tally will be accurate," he said.

But Wycoco said he will not make any comment on the bureau’s investigation of Ador.

"I will not comment on the issue as everything I said was misunderstood due to accusations coming from both sides," he said.

Wycoco also denied allegations that he is using his post as NBI director to "wage a personal war" against Lacson and his former men at PAOCTF.

"If I am really after him (Lacson), the I should have ordered my men to do a second polygraph test on Ador as soon as I knew that the results of the first polygraph test were inconclusive," he said.

Earlier, Lacson said he would block Wycoco’s confirmation as NBI director before the Commission on Appointments.