Cayetano gets death threat over BW earnings

Controversial Senator-Judge Renato Cayetano told the Senate impeachment trial court yesterday he received a bullet enclosed in an envelope, with a letter saying he would be executed if he did not return to the poor some P70 million in alleged stolen money.

Cayetano, a staunch critic of President Estrada, showed the court the caliber .45 bullet and the death threat, which he said was delivered to his office earlier yesterday morning.

"This was contained in the envelope containing a letter that I had been tried and found guilty and will be executed," the senator said. He did not give any other details about the letter’s contents.

Cayetano immediately denounced the letter as another attempt to intimidate him while noting it suspiciously came after he delivered a privilege speech that revealed the alleged attempt by the President to secure the acquittal of Hubert Webb, principal suspect in the Vizconde murder case.

The senator claimed he became a target of a demolition job by Malacañang after he had rejected the request to help acquit Webb, a son of former Sen. Freddie Webb and also a close friend of the President.

"I really don’t mind receiving death threats," Cayetano said. "Yes, I fear for my life. I only hope that they will not drag my family into this because they have committed nothing wrong."

The envelope was initially received by one of Cayetano’s staff in the Senate at about 10:30 p.m. It was delivered by one Ranilo Baldoza of LBC Express Inc. and the sender’s name was a certain Berbal Galang, who gave his address as SV FM radio station, 494 Quezon Drive, Mabalacat, Pampanga.

It was later found out that the undated letter bore the name of a certain Ka Basil of RHB II, or Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan of Region II, a breakaway group of the communist New People’s Army.

Cayetano said he immediately asked the assistance of Gen. Leonardo Perez, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, after receiving the letter.

The P70 million in stolen money was obviously in reference to the profit allegedly earned by Cayetano from the trading of Best World Resources Corp. (BW) stocks.

BW majority shareholder Dante Tan had claimed that Cayetano had asked for four million shares of BW at a 50 percent discount, and did not pay for the shares until the Senate started the investigation of the BW scandal last year.

Cayetano said the charge is also part of an alleged demolition job by the Palace. He admitted trading in BW stocks but insisted he netted only P42 million, not P70 million.

The senator likewise denied any impropriety, saying he made a full disclosure of his investment in BW stocks.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Osmeña reiterated his challenge to Cayetano "to return the P70 million he allegedly earned from the trade of BW shares in 1999."

"In the same way that Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta and I returned the money (from Chavit Singson) and explained the circumstances of the so-called balato and have come forward with clean slates on the matter, so perhaps Senator Cayetano should return the P70 million," Osmeña said.

Villar bares bomb threats

Former Speaker Manuel Villar bared a series of bomb threats received by the head office of Camella and Palmera Homes in Cubao, Quezon City, a company he founded in the ’80s, as he decried scare and harassment tactics against members of the political opposition.

"I think this is part of attempts to clamp down on the opposition. It is reminiscent of martial law," Villar said.

Members of the political opposition have also complained about harassment tactics being employed by the administration, the latest being the rehashing of dismissed graft charges against Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, chief of the 11-man House prosecution panel.
Recently, prosecution witnesses in the trial have also been receiving threats.

"These moves threaten to narrow the democratic space we move in," Villar said. "I just hope that these scare tactics and harassment are not a prelude to something that will endanger our democracy."