‘Top PNP brass tried to convince Viña to testify vs Ping’

A ranking police official and nemesis of Sen. Panfilo Lacson claimed yesterday that Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña had planned to testify against the former national police chief on his alleged involvement in several high-profile crimes.

Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya, director of the Philippine National Police’s Civil Security Group, told reporters that he met Viña with former national police chief and now Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Mendoza’s former chief of staff, Rex Piad, over lunch at Mandarin Hotel in Makati City sometime in mid-2001. Berroya was then chief of the PNP’s intelligence division.

Viña said he would testify only if he was pushed to the wall, according to Berroya.

He said he failed to follow up on Viña when the latter was appointed director for the Visayas region of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), once headed by Lacson.

He then passed on the information about Viña to then PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection (CIDG) chief Deputy Director General Nestorio Gualberto, who was then investigating the November 2000 murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Viña was among the 22 suspects initially charged for the murders.

Piad, in an interview with The STAR, confirmed the Makati meeting. "There was such a meeting where General Berroya talked to Viña. We were there to pitch some aspects," he said.

Viña told Berroya that he would testify against Lacson if he and his family will be assured of protection under the government’s witness protection program, Piad said. "He asked about the stability and credibility of the (program)," he said.

Viña also said "nothing could happen" in the PAOCTF without Lacson’s knowledge.

Berroya said it appeared that people who were reportedly intending to turn their back on Lacson were being "eased out," referring to Viña and Chief Inspector John Campos.

Campos was gunned down in Parañaque City on Dec. 5 while having a snack at a roadside canteen.

But Berroya stopped short of accusing the opposition senator.

Viña was gunned down on Tuesday night at a gathering in Tanza, Cavite. National Bureau of Investigation Director Reynaldo Wycoco and PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane said police are investigating if the Viña and Campos murders are linked.

Former police undercover agent Mary Ong said Campos was planning to talk against Lacson, whom she accused of silencing her former handler and lover.

Campos was relieved in 2001 when Ong accused him of involvement in the illegal drug trade upon the orders of then national police chief Lacson, with whom Campos was associated.

Wycoco said Viña and Campos were probably targeted because "both of them became controversial while serving with a former ranking officer," without naming Lacson.

Reacting to their statements, Lacson yesterday said: "I caution Director Wycoco and General Ebdane from making reckless and highly speculative statements in the absence of formal results of the investigation on the two cases."

"General Ebdane and Director Wycoco need only to look at the circumstances behind the shooting to death of retired Col. Viña before they open their mouths and make irresponsible statements," Lacson said.

He said Ebdane and Wycoco already have mindsets "which makes it impossible for them to see what is right and what is wrong."

"It’s a good thing that the gunman was arrested. Otherwise, such politically charged statements would have been more sinister," Lacson added.

He expressed fears that the statements of Wycoco and Ebdane had put at risk the credibility and competence of the ongoing investigation of the two murder cases.

Lacson resigned on Jan. 21, 2001, after Estrada’s ouster. He ran for the Senate in May 2001 under Estrada’s coalition and won.

PAOCTF men had previously been linked to a number of high-profile crimes, including the Dacer murder, the kidnapping of casino employee Edgar Bentain, and drug smuggling, among other cases. – With Efren Danao, Cecille Suerte Felipe