Former civilian agent being used to destroy PNP, cops say

Police are convinced that a former civilian agent of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) is being used to destroy the credibility of the Philippine National Police.

A ranking police official made this assessment as an active policeman accused former PAOCTF chief and now Sen. Panfilo Lacson of involvement in the May 1995 killing of 11 suspected Kuratong Baleleng gang members.

In a sworn affidavit, SPO2 Noel Seno said he and another policeman were ordered by PAOCTF official Superintendent Glenn Dumlao to serve as advance party to Superville Subdivision in Parañaque City, where the hideout of gang leader Wilson Soronda was to be raided.

But while police gave credence to Seno’s statement, ranking police officials said the claims of the former PAOCTF civilian agent known as "Ador" were a ploy to destroy the PNP.

"There is an obvious attempt to sow conflict in the minds of the public and destroy the credibility of the whole police organization," said a ranking police official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

However, PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza vowed to get to the bottom of the statements of Ador who claimed to have personal knowledge of several high-profile crimes.

Mendoza said police are still trying to validate Ador’s allegations but most police officials have dismissed them as "ridiculous and incredible" and meant to muddle ongoing police investigations.

Senior police officials suspect Ador’s testimony was meant to discredit Dumlao who linked Lacson and his protégé Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino to the kidnap-murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November last year.

Members of the media were also dragged into the case with Lacson accusing several media men of being under the payroll of someone who was out to destroy him.

But it appears that Dumlao, one of Lacson’s own protégés, would likely be the one with the most damning declaration against the neophyte senator and his former staff.

Dumlao admitted being the "project" officer of the Dacer-Corbito case and claimed someone in Malacañang ordered Aquino to kidnap Dacer and recover documents that were in Dacer’s possession.

The still-missing documents were supposed to be released during the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada. He also claimed that Lacson had personal knowledge of the entire operation.

Dumlao made the revelation in a sworn statement which he executed shortly after he was arrested at a bus terminal in Pasay City two months ago.

But Ador presented another version of the Dacer-Corbito kidnap-slays, leading senior police officials to believe that Ador was meant to derail the prosecution of the Dacer-Corbito case.

Key witness?

Meanwhile, Seno is the first witness on the Kuratong Baleleng case who claimed to have been present from the start of the operation until the killing of the gang members.

The Kuratong Baleleng gang was a kidnapping group that was supposedly under the protection of certain police officials who felt it was time to disengage from the group.

In an affidavit executed before State Prosecutor Melvin Abad, Seno claimed Dumlao, who was still a Senior Inspector under the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC), ordered him and the other policeman to stake out at the entrance of the subdivision on the night of May 17, 1995.

Ramos created the PACC shortly after he assumed office as president and appointed then Vice President Estrada as chairman. Estrada named Lacson head of the PACC’s Task Force Habagat.

According to Seno, he and his companion waited for about two hours before the raiding party arrived. The raiders included members of the defunct Traffic Management Command and the Central Police District Command, backed by an armored vehicle of PNP Special Action Force.

Seno said he joined the raiding team and entered the safehouse of Soronda where he saw several handcuffed and blindfolded men lying face down on the floor.

He then left the house and saw then Senior Supts. Francisco Zubia and Romeo Acop and their bodyguards before the entire raiding team left in a convoy to Camp Crame with the gang members on board two L-300 vans.

Seno said he then proceeded to his quarters in Camp Crame to rest but was awakened at dawn of May 18 by Inspector Abelardo Ramos, who ordered him to proceed to the TMC compound.

At the compound, he saw several plainclothesmen and uniformed policemen and they were told by Ramos to wait for further orders from the officers who were involved in the raid in Parañaque the night before.

Ramos later emerged from the meeting of officers and Seno approached him.

"I approached him (Ramos) and asked him: ‘Sir, what did the people upstairs say?’ He said the decision was to create a ‘scenario.’ But I told him there were too many witnesses including (Soronda’s) neighbors. He said ‘I don’t know. It’s their order. It’s up to them,’" Seno narrated in his affidavit.

After Ramos briefed the gathered men, the group proceeded in a convoy to Quezon City where Seno rode in the lead L-300 van with the suspects rounded up the night before.

Behind Seno’s van was another L-300 van with more gang members and then Chief Inspector Michael Ray Aquino.

When they reached the foot of the flyover at the corner of Tandang Sora and Commonwealth Avenues, the van stopped and Seno and the other policemen were told to get off the vehicle. – With Ding Cervantes