‘Ador’ to senators: Please release me

Please release me, let me go.

This was the refrain of an open letter key military intelligence witness Angelo "Ador" Mawanay wrote yesterday, asking senators to release him from detention so he could produce evidence to substantiate his allegations.

After a sleepless night at a "detention room" in the Senate, Mawanay lamented that he was ordered detained instead of testifying about the alleged "illegal activities" of Sen. Panfilo Lacson when he was still national police chief.

Mawanay asked the senators to release him motu propio since he does not have a lawyer to file the motion for him.

Mawanay was ordered detained by Sen. Robert Barbers on Friday until he could prove his claim that he sold 1,000 smuggled cell phones, worth about P8.9 million, to Senate Minority Leader Loren Legarda in December 1998.

"Now that I have been unconstitutionally detained, how can I produce and coordinate with the rightful person who can help me substantiate the evidence needed by this honorable Senate committee, if they are still around?" Mawanay said in his letter.

"As senators of the land and as elected officials, you (the senators) should also be the ones to give justice, be fair and give everyone a chance to prove himself," he wrote.

"I never realized that telling the truth would put me in jail," Mawanay added.

Mawanay was placed under the custody of the Senate sergeant-at-arms and detained at the Senate chauffeurs’ lounge which was furnished with a television set, two electric fans, a sofa and a foam mattress bed.

But Corpus also provided him with a security detail and his family was allowed to stay with him over the weekend.

He also had a list of distinguished callers, including Barbers, who ordered his arrest as chairman of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, and Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chairman of the committee on national defense and security.

"It is much better here than being put in a drum," Mawanay quipped, referring to his claim that Lacson was allegedly responsible for the kidnapping and execution of casino employee Edgar Bentain who was placed in a drum full of cement and thrown in a river in Pampanga.

Mawanay was supposed to testify on Friday against Lacson whom he had implicated in a number of high-profile crimes, including multiple murder, smuggling, drug trafficking and kidnapping.

Instead, he was ordered detained until he could prove that Legarda indeed bought the smuggled cellphones.

After a couple of nights in detention, however, he maintained that corroborating documents were destroyed in a flood and the people who could help him prove his allegation may be unwilling to help him, especially after his detention.

He said he could present 50 percent of the evidence against Lacson because he had had some time to prepare them but not against Legarda.

The Senate minority leader, for her part, said she would not object to Mawanay’s appeal for reconsideration but insisted that she would file perjury charges against her accuser.

"I cannot allow anyone to just trample upon my honor and integrity just like that. I value my honor with all my heart," Legarda said, adding that she had already accepted the apology of military intelligence chief Col. Victor Corpus, who brought Mawanay to the Senate to testify against Lacson.

Let’s get back on track — Corpus

Corpus, on the other hand, vowed he would substantiate his charge of corruption against unnamed lawmakers, magistrates and journalists when he appears before the Senate on Tuesday.

In a telephone interview, Corpus claimed he has prepared a list and would present it to the joint hearing of Senate committees on national defense and security; public order and illegal drugs; and investigations and public accountability.

"Tuloy-tuloy na ito, wala nang urungan (This will push through, no more backing out)," Corpus said.

At the same time, Corpus appealed to the senators not to divert the subject of the investigation and remain focused on the allegations that Lacson had laundered the proceeds of illegal activities in foreign banks.

"The senators should not divert the issues. What happened on Friday was I was the one grilled instead of the person who is supposed to be investigated for his illegal bank accounts," he said.

"We should focus on the creeping dominance of narco-politics. It is not a simple issue. The public should be awakened that drug money is utilized to elect people to office. We do not want leaders placed by drug syndicates in 2004," he added.

Stop badgering the witness – Palace

Meanwhile, Malacañang urged the Senate to focus on Corpus’ allegations against Lacson instead of "badgering" witnesses.

"You cannot question the way the Senate undertakes its hearings, it’s an independent body. We just hope the Senate really focuses on the subject of Col. Corpus’ investigations," said Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.

Tiglao also denied the claim of opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara that Mawanay is waging a "calibrated and deliberate" campaign to destroy all possible presidential contenders in the 2004 elections.

"I don’t think so. That’s the way his (Mawanay’s) testimony appears to come out but we are really not privy to the testimonies he gave to Col. Corpus," Tiglao said.

"But as far as we know, those issues were brought up by the senators themselves and other things were disclosed by Mawanay voluntarily," he added.

Tiglao also deplored suggestions that Corpus’ unit, the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), be rendered inoperational by cutting its budget to P1 a year.

"We have to emphasize that the ISAFP role is very crucial to national security. There is only an impression that it is concentrating on the money laundering charges (against Lacson) but that’s not true," Tiglao said.

"The ISAFP has also been very active in the national anti-insurgency campaign," he added.

A group of militant lawyers, Equal Justice for All Movement (E-Just), also advised the Arroyo administration against relieving Corpus as military intelligence chief.

"I hope the President does not give in to pressure to relieve Col. Corpus. The opposition had succeeded in relieving Col. Reynaldo Berroya as chief of police intelligence," said lawyer Leonard de Vera of E-Just. – With a report from Paolo Romero