Solon asks Palace: What happened to Lucio Co probe

Whatever happened to the case of presidential friend Lucio Co, whom President Estrada himself ordered investigated for alleged large-scale smuggling?

Opposition Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (Lakas, Bukidnon) asked this question yesterday a few days after former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu told the Senate sitting as an impeachment court that one of the reasons he quit the Estrada Cabinet was because several presidential friends were involved in smuggling.

Zubiri said newly installed Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara should tell the public the results of the investigation supposedly ordered by Mr. Estrada on Co and other suspected smugglers.

Quoting an Aug. 21, 1999 Malacañang press release, he said the order was given to then Customs Commissioner Nelson Tan.

Co is the owner of Puregold Duty-Free Shop. He is also the recipient of a license given by Duty-Free Philippines, a government corporation, to run at least five other duty-free stores.

According to articles written by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Co is one of several presidential friends serving as fronts for mansions and other properties owned by Mr. Estrada and his mistresses.

At least one other close friend of the President is believed to be into big-time smuggling. His name has cropped up several times in Mr. Estrada’s impeachment trial.

Espiritu did not name the suspected smugglers, telling senator-judges that naming them would be a dangerous proposition.

Zubiri said the failure of Malacañang to tell the public about the results of the supposed investigation of smugglers meant that the Palace "didn’t really lift a finger against this cabal, which is so powerful that even a former Cabinet member was afraid to name them."

Angara has also been urged to make a full accounting of the 60 expensive sport utility vehicles (SUVs) the Bureau of Customs turned over to the Office of the President in 1998 and 1999 on the President’s orders.

According to opposition Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo I (Lakas, Valenzuela), who was the one who exposed the questionable turnover of the vehicles, there has so far been no transparent accounting of the so-called "hot" cars.

He said while several units have been sold through public auction, many of the vehicles could not be accounted for.

The President had assigned the SUVs to Cabinet members and other Palace officials. – Jess Diaz