No paper trail vs Lacson — Corpus

Military intelligence chief Col. Victor Corpus virtually admitted yesterday he could not substantiate his charges that controversial Sen. Panfilo Lacson kept rich foreign bank accounts.

With the apparent lack of a paper trail leading to Lacson’s alleged huge dollar deposits in Hong Kong, the United States and Canada, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. advised Corpus to focus his investigations instead on other alleged illegal activities of Lacson.

During yesterday’s continuance of the Senate inquiry on Lacson’s alleged criminal activities, Corpus said his contact from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) verbally confirmed only one foreign bank account of Lacson.

Corpus said this particular account with the Citibank branch on 19th Avenue in San Francisco, California, held $24 million as of last July.

Corpus and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco revealed that they met recently with the unidentified FBI agent at the Manila Hotel and sought the American’s assistance in verifying Lacson’s other bank accounts in the US.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, who also testified during the Senate inquiry, said his American counterpart, the US Attorney General, has not replied to his similar request on the matter.

Corpus has also told the senators that the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) which he heads and the NBI got varying documents from different sources in the US regarding Lacson’s alleged foreign bank accounts.

In urging Corpus to broaden his investigation, Pimentel said the ill-gotten wealth aspect was only one of the criminal charges against Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police and commander of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force.

Citing the string of accusations against Lacson, Wycoco urged the senators to help indict their colleague, saying it was unfair that one person could give so many problems to the country.

In Davao City, Southern Mindanao regional police director Senior Superintendent Edgardo Matillano predicted that Lacson will land in jail before he could run in the 2004 presidential elections.

"It will never happen. He will be in jail before Christmas," Matillano said.

He added that with the host of criminal cases filed against Lacson, it was unlikely that the senator could become a presidential candidate.

"You can just imagine the cases. There is the Kuratong Baleleng case, the Bubby Dacer case, the Edgar Bentain case, and other charges such as money laundering, wire tapping, illegal drugs and others. He has to face all that," Matillano pointed out.

Lacson has also been accused of laundering drug money and maintaining connections with a Hong Kong-based drug syndicate.

The senator has repeatedly denied the charges, saying he was willing to face his accusers.

He noted that Lacson avoided a face-off with Corpus and government witness Angelo "Ador" Mawanay at the Senate inquiry being conducted jointly by the committees on public order and illegal drugs.

"He will have a hard time evading all those charges, that is why he is evading the Senate hearing," the police official said.

On the alleged advice of his partymates, Lacson reportedly inhibited himself from the hearing and joined instead the committee on national defense that visited Lamitan town in Basilan province to look into charges of an unholy alliance between the military and the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.

Matillano, another outspoken critic of Lacson, said he was happy that he was not alone in his crusade against the former PNP chief.

"I see the hands of God working now. This is what you call karma. You can never go against the law of God. This is proof that evil will not triumph against the good," Matillano said.

Meanwhile, the intelligence community is reportedly closely monitoring some quarters within the military plotting to overthrow the Arroyo administration and supplanting it with a military junta.

Speaking at a forum sponsored by a civic group at the Ateneo de Manila University the other night, Corpus said the suspected coup plotters consisted of rightist soldiers.

"We are watching them because this threat is a big possibility," Corpus said.

"They are bent on seizing political power, but the AFP leadership is ready to defend our democratic institutions. We will fight them," he said.

He warned that if the plotters succeeded, they would not stay in power for a long time as the people themselves would rise against them in the fashion of the EDSA people power I and II.

"They can seize power, but they will not last. There will be EDSA 4 if that happens," Corpus said.

Asked to elaborate, Corpus begged off, saying he might be accused anew of talking too much to the media.

AFP chief Gen. Diomedio Villanueva said reports of a coup plot are being fanned by elements out to destabilize the Arroyo government.

"They are just recycling old news. But even if they are just rumors, the AFP is ready to protect our people," Villanueva said.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez echoed Villanueva’s statements, saying coup rumors spread fast because of advances in the electronic media.

Another Lacson critic, Central Luzon police chief Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya, noted that the recent raid on a spy center in Pasig City being manned by Lacson’s former henchmen yielded "air-tight" evidence proving that the senator perjured himself and violated the anti-wiretapping law.

Lacson denied, however, that the electronic bugging devices belonged to the PAOCTF.

But Berroya argued that former PAOCTF deputy chief Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula was directly involved in the procurement of the spying gadgets.

Berroya said purchase receipts and other documents were among pieces of evidence seized during the raid on the so-called "listening post" at the Discovery Suites building on Ortigas Avenue in Pasig.–With Paolo Romero, Edith Regalado