Loi, Jude linked to mutiny

Sen. Luisa "Loi" Ejercito Estrada and son Jude were implicated yesterday in the mutiny of junior military soldiers last July 27.

At the start of the public hearings of the Feliciano Commission, Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) chief Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay testified that government forces recovered some circumstantial evidence from the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center luxury apartment and other locations, which implicate certain individuals from the Estrada camp.

Although Cabuay did not reveal the names of two civilians they have on their list of possible suspects, the pieces of evidence presented at yesterday’s hearing point to the former First Lady and Jude Estrada — a reserve Air Force pilot — as the possible civilian backers of the mutineers.

The ISAFP chief presented as evidence three vehicles recovered at three locations included in the mutineer’s list of 17 hard targets — a White Kia Besta van registered under the name of JELP Realty, a company owned by Mrs. Ejercito and with a address at Polk street in North Greenhills, San Juan; a Mazda van registered under the name of a certain Hao Philip and a Mitsubishi L-300 van registered under one Ceferino Pelayo.

The vehicles were recovered at the Naval Sea System Command armory at Sangley Point in Cavite, the NBC Tent at Fort Bonifacio and at Fort San Felipe.

Cabuay noted that the Kia and Mazda vans had stickers of the North Greenhills Homeowners’ Association where the Estradas live, while the Mitsubishi L-300 and the Mazda vans had stickers registered under the name of Senator Estrada.

A white envelope sealed with a sticker marked "Jude Estrada PAF" was also found inside the Kia van.

The camp of Senator Estrada vehemently denied involvement in the mutiny, saying that the vehicles have long been sold.

The senator claimed that the vehicles were sold in 1998 but she said she is not aware who the buyers were.

"We are in the process of looking into the papers of the sale of the said vehicles," Jesus Crispin Remulla, spokesman of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino and a lawyer of Senator Estrada, said.

Cabuay testified that the ISAFP was also able to recover a receipt from SM for P30,000 worth of house furnishings purchased by a certain Joel Gamboa of Lt. Artiaga street in San Juan. But during an ISAFP investigation on the place, Cabuay’s men were arrested by the San Juan police and Mayor Joseph Victor JV Ejercito who, along with half-brother Jinggoy, claimed that they were using the house as one of their offices.

Aside from Cabuay, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez also testified in yesterday’s hearing.

Golez said that while the grievances raised by the junior officers involved in the Makati siege were legitimate, they were already being addressed by the national government.

But he said that they were only used as a cover up for the larger political agenda of installing Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan into power.

Citing several evidence such as the mutineers’ use of Honasan’s National Recovery Program as their "Bible" and the retrieval and restoration of a diskette containing the detailed plans of the coup plotters, Golez claimed that Honasan was one of the major players behind the July 27 mutiny.

He added that the intelligence reports received by the government revealed that Honasan met with the rebel soldiers on at least two occasions prior to July 27 — one in Metro Manila and another at Sangley Point in Cavite.

A case has been filed against Honasan at the Department of Justice but the senator has not been seen in public since the President declared the state of rebellion.

In the diskette recovered from Oakwood, Golez said there were 10 names listed as members of the Council of Elders who are behind the coup plot, one of whom was Honasan.

Except for one, all of the elders had military backgrounds and three of these are reportedly still in active service.

Golez revealed that the diskette also contained a list of 140 junior officers who were supposed to be involved in the takeover of the government. These officers were assigned to the 17 hard targets of the coup plotters.

The targets include Malacañang Palace, the Department of National Defense, Camp Crame, power and transmission lines, Fort Bonifacio, NAIA complex, Sangley Point, South Luzon Expressway, North Luzon Expressway, communications facilities including television stations, intelligence, reserve and medical facilities, logistics, air operations, and the armory.

Golez noted that the group had three plans for their failed attempt to grab power. One was the attack on all vital government, military and private installations. Another one was to snatch former President Joseph Estrada from detention and reinstate him as President. But he said three days after Estrada is reinstated, he would be removed and a military junta would take over with Honasan at the helm.

He said that this was the reason the government decided to transfer Estrada from the Veterans Medical Memorial Center (VMMC) in Quezon City at the height of the coup to Camp Crame as there were valid threats to his security.

When the government uncovered the coup plot, Golez said the renegade soldiers were forced to resort to their other plan, which is to takeover a commercial area, which turned out to be the Glorietta Center in Makati’s Central Business District. — With Jose Rodel Clapano