Atong Ang to seek trial in US, won’t testify vs Estrada

Known Estrada ally Charlie "Atong" Ang will seek trial in the US where he has a better chance of receiving justice, his American lawyer said yesterday.

Ang also refuses to betray the former president by turning state witness and testifying against him in his plunder trial.

"Charlie has complete faith in the US court system," lawyer Donald Etra of Los Angeles said. "This is a matter of life and death. If he stays in the US, he will live. If he returns to the Philippines, the likelihood is he’ll be killed."

US marshals arrested Ang at a hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Nevada last Sunday based on a request by the Department of Justice (DOJ). He is detained at a north Las Vegas jail used to house federal prisoners as he awaits possible extradition to the Philippines to face plunder charges.

His close friend, former President Joseph Estrada, is currently on trial for allegedly receiving billions of pesos in kickbacks from illegal gambling operations, tobacco excise taxes and questionable investments.

Ang and Estrada’s former auditor Yolanda Ricaforte have been named co-respondents in the case. Ricaforte is believed hiding in Los Angeles, California and has yet to be caught.

Etra said Ang and his family have lived in Las Vegas and Los Angeles since death threats following the popular revolt in January forced them to leave the Philippines.

The lawyer, who also represents Ricaforte, said Ang never sought to hide or evade arrest. However, Etra declined to say where in the US Ricaforte was living.

‘In your dreams’

Estrada’s lawyer Raymund Fortun, who flew to the US following the arrest, said there is no chance that Ang would turn state witness and pin down the former president on the charge of plunder.

"Only in your dreams," was the message relayed by Ang to the government through Fortun.

Fortun pointed out that he was in Las Vegas only to confer with Ang’s lawyer and to check on the detainee’s status first hand. He explained he has no license to practice law in the state of Nevada.

The lawyer said he conferred with Ang and "he is not entertaining any thoughts of compromise with Malacañang just to save himself."

"I am willing to tell all and am willing to go to jail; I cannot be intimidated like (Carlos) Arellano and (Federico) Pascual. I am definitely not like Chavit (Singson) who would lie just to escape imprisonment," Ang told Fortun.

Arellano and Pascual, former heads of the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System, respectively, had testified against Estrada in connection with investments in the pension funds.

Singson, on the other hand, was the first to implicate Estrada in the illegal gambling payoff, which led to his impeachment and eventual ouster last January.

Singson, then governor of Ilocos Sur, had feuded with Ang over the continued proliferation of the illegal numbers game jueteng in Region I. Ang reportedly sided with Estrada’s decision to legalize jueteng all over the country with the introduction of Bingo 2-Ball.

Fortun said Ang will now be given the opportunity to air his testimony, which he failed to give after the impeachment trial was aborted.