Opposition to expose government espionage

Opposition senators vowed yesterday to expose what they claimed was the Arroyo administration’s extensive use of the military intelligence network to spy on the nation’s elected officials and ordinary citizens just like in a police state.

Sen. Edgardo Angara said they will unmask the people behind the espionage activities and reveal how much money the administration channeled to the operation.

"Who are the people on top of the spy network?" Angara asked. "How is funding secured and how does money flow? We hope to find out whether the administration’s intelligence network has taken the form of a Big Brother, with spying on innocent citizens and public servants as its primary agenda."

Angara said the Senate voted last week to conduct an inquiry today on the alleged spying activities of intelligence officers under the seven-month-old Arroyo administration.

"Why is the chief intelligence officer of the Armed Forces now revealing supposed intelligence findings in press interviews?" he asked. "Why is he on a media and publicity blitz? So many strange things are going on in the intelligence community and this is very bothersome."

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called for the inquiry through a re-solution yesterday after Angara moved that military intelligence chief Col. Victor Corpus as well as top military and defense department officials be summoned for the Senate Question Hour.

In the Question Hour, which is a rarely exercised privilege, the Senate acts as a "committee of the whole" to question government officials on important matters affecting the nation.

President Arroyo’s spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters she has authorized Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes to appear at the Senate today for the Question Hour.

"The position of the President is that the AFP has nothing to hide," he said. "The Secretary of National Defense can very well defend the ISAFP operations and the President’s instructions were simply for Secretary Reyes to explain the side of the AFP and the ISAFP, which is under their control."

Tiglao said Corpus, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), remains in the "good graces" of Mrs. Arroyo and that there has been no recommendation for his relief or reassignment.

"If (Corpus) is not in good graces, he’ll be moved out of his position or transferred," he said.

Reyes was summoned to the Senate to shed light on Corpus’ allegations that Sen. Panfilo Lacson had amassed wealth from drug trafficking, kidnapping-for-ransom, and other illegal activities.

Under the Constitution, any Cabinet secretary being summoned to a question hour at the Senate or the House of Representatives must get permission from the President.

Kim’s lawyer rebuffs Lim

Meanwhile, the lawyer for businessman Kim Wong rebuffed former interior secretary Alfredo Lim yesterday for rehashing Corpus’ allegations that his client is a drug lord.

Former solicitor general Francisco Chavez said in a statement that Lim had no basis in making his allegations against Kim at yesterday’s Kapihan sa Manila Hotel breakfast forum.

"(Lim) further accused (Kim) of following the pattern used by the US Mafia wherein restaurants are established very much like (Kim’s) food chain of restaurants in Luneta doubling as fronts for his illegitimate activities," he said. "Pressed for proof by reporters, Lim could not present any."

Chavez said Lim also accused Kim of being behind the disappearance of a certain Angelito Sy, an alleged interpreter of the disbanded Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, because Sy was said to have known about a big shipment of shabu sometime last March.

"Again, asked for evidence, Lim could not, other than his mere say so," he said.

Chavez said ISAFP agents are also harassing Kim’s business partners by going to their homes at unholy hours and asking questions about their businesses and the whereabouts of Kim. – Aurea Calica, Marichu Villanueva, Sandy Araneta