Another ex-agent tags Ping in crimes

Col. Victor Corpus, chief of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), is poised to present another witness at the Senate hearing on the alleged involvement of Sen. Panfilo Lacson in illegal activities.

This time, Corpus will escort to the Senate hearing a former civilian agent of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) who will testify on Lacson’s alleged involvement in kidnapping and drug trafficking.

The new witness, identified only as Mar, alleged that he took part in the surveillance on Mary Grace Cheng-Regasa who was kidnapped at the Univer-sity of the Philippines compound in Diliman, Quezon City on June 18.

Regasa, daughter of Uratex owner Robert Cheng, was reportedly released upon payment of a P50-million ransom.

Mar claimed he has been connected with the PAOCTF since 1996, receiving a monthly stipend of P20,000 as a civilian asset.

Corpus brought to the Senate hearing last Thursday Indian national Danny Devnani who also linked Lacson, jailed former President Joseph Estrada, his son former San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada and suspected gambling lord and Estrada crony Charlie "Atong" Ang to the criminal activities of the Kuratong Baleleng gang.

Devnani said Estrada has asked him to be a front man for the Club 419 which the former leader owned on Wilson street in San Juan where former professional basketball player Arnulfo Tuadles was shot dead in November 1996.

Meanwhile, Malacañang remained confident that the Supreme Court (SC) will reverse a decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) stopping the Department of Justice (DOJ) from pursuing the multiple murder charges against Sen. Panfilo Lacson and 37 other police officers in connection with the alleged summary execution of 11 members of the Kuratong Baleleng robbery-holdup gang.

Press Undersecretary Roberto Capco said the majority ruling by the CA special third division which also barred the Quezon City Regional Trial Court from issuing an arrest warrant against Lacson and his 37 co-accused was based on the procedural aspects and technicalities on the prescribed period for the filing of cases.

"We are optimistic because the truth is on our side. So, we are not afraid of being defeated. The case can be refiled," Capco said.

He said the six-year-old Kuratong Baleleng case will be re-opened and that the government, through the DOJ and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), will be presenting new evidence and witnesses.

"Like in the Aquino-Galman case, the government was able to get new evidence and the case was re-opened. And the prescription period for the filing of the case against Lacson is not two years, but 20 years," Capco argued.

He was referring to the Aug. 21, 1983 murders of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and his alleged communist assassin, Rolando Galman, at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport, since renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Capco said the DOJ and the OSG are set to file a petition with the High Tribunal seeking a reversal of the CA ruling.