Enrile linked to Al-Ghozi escape

Two days after a former police intelligence chief of the Estrada administration was linked to the escape of convicted Indonesian bomber Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf bandits, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Director Eduardo Matillano is now training his sights on former opposition senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

Matillano yesterday raised suspicions that Enrile might be involved in a disinformation campaign against the Arroyo administration and the ongoing probe of the escape.

Enrile’s name cropped up after Matillano accused Army Col. Oscarlito Mapalo, head of the military’s Anti-Crime Task Force (ACTAF), of ordering the surveillance on his residence in Antipolo City last Sunday.

"We established that Mapalo has ties with anti-government elements particularly during the May 1 rebellion, when he was with the pro-Erap (former President Joseph Estrada’s) group," Matillano said.

He claimed Mapalo regularly reports to Enrile, even as he admitted there is no hard evidence linking the former opposition senator to the disinformation campaign.

Enrile admitted meeting Mapalo over dinner at his residence two months ago, but denied the meeting had something to do with destabilization efforts.

Enrile told The STAR Mapalo was introduced to him by Allan Yap, a staffer of Horacio "Boy" Morales who served as agrarian reform secretary during the Estrada administration.

"I met this Mapalo more than two months ago... I do not know him from Adam. He was brought by Allan Yap, who is working as a member of the headquarters staff of Boy Morales," Enrile said.

According to Enrile, Yap paid him a visit to bring "some papers" concerning developments in the so-called United Opposition.

"They (Yap and Mapalo) had dinner at home," Enrile said. "That was the first and last time I met this Mapalo. And my impression is that guy is from Cagayan Valley and working at the Department of National Defense (DND)."

Enrile stressed there was nothing unusual about the dinner with Mapalo since it was an expression of hospitality on his part extended to anybody who visits him at home.

Enrile then directed his challenge to Matillano to prove his allegations in court. "They (Matillano and the investigators) have so handled the problem so ineptly and now they are looking for (a) scapegoat. I advise Matillano and the rest of them not to use me as a scapegoat because they will not succeed. They will only make fools of themselves," he said.

Enrile also debunked reports linking him to destabilization plots against President Arroyo and her administration.

"We do not have to besmirch the image of the administration because they have destroyed their own image," Enrile said while holding the latest issue of TIME magazine containing an article on the escape.

Matillano, for his part, accused Mapalo of involvement in alleged shakedown activities in the Filipino-Chinese community.

"I learned from ISAFP (Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines) that he (Mapalo) has been recommended for relief because there were several reports that he is into illegal activities, shakedown of businessman for personal profits. And I have also some information that he is involved in some criminal activities," Matillano said, as he disclosed plans of filing criminal charges against Mapalo.

The CIDG chief recalled that his former regional director, the late Gen. Ed Ocampo, sacked Mapalo for alleged extortion activities.

Mapalo, a graduate of Philippine Military Academy Class 1979, could not be reached for comment.

Matillano personally arrested two Navy Intelligence and Security Force (NISF) agents casing his house in Kingsville Subdivision in Antipolo City last Sunday.

Matillano also noted some high ranking PNP officials were working to embarrass and discredit him in the investigation.

Matillano earlier linked Chief Superintendent Julius Yarcia, chief of the Philippine National Police - Directorate for Intelligence during the Estrada administration, to Al-Ghozi’s escape.

Yarcia remains active in the police service but has been reassigned to the PNP Administration Holding Center, the so-called "career freezer."

He said Superintendent Reuben Galban, chief of the PNP-Intelligence Group’s Foreign Intelligence Liaison Office (FILO) which had custody of Al-Ghozi before the escape, was a protégé of Yarcia.

Matillano disclosed Galban was a former Marine officer assigned at the ISAFP before joining the PNP as an intelligence officer.

He said he will push through with the probe on Galban who earlier denied the accusations.

Matillano insisted Galban should be made liable since the escape occurred under his watch.

Galban was among the 17 officers of the 90 IG personnel ordered relieved. The rest of the 73 non-commissioned police officers were also relieved and have been assigned to other PNP offices during the investigation.

The CIDG has filed criminal charges against Superintendent Guillermo Danipog, Inspector James Dime, Senior Police Officer 3 Ruperto Principe Jr. and PO1 Ronald Palmares, who were on duty at the time of the escape.

Aside from charges of evasion through negligence, the police officers were also charged administratively with serious neglect of duty, punishable by dismissal.

Matillano said criminal charges are also being readied against Galban and Superintendent Carlito Natanuan, IG headquarters commandant.

For his part, Chief Superintendent Arturo Lomibao, newly appointed PNP-IG chief, went on to order the relief of other PNP-IG personnel, even those who are now helping out in the recapture of Al-Ghozi.

Lomibao earlier initiated a revamp of the entire unit shortly after being appointed as IG director by PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

Lomibao said he will also review all existing operational procedures and conduct an audit and evaluation of all IG facilities.

Although admitting that he has started to trace "guilt through association" proceedings, Matillano said the July 14 escape was a difficult case to crack.

"This is because of the conspiracy angle. But we will resolve this eventually," he said.

Meanwhile, the fact-finding commission created by the President to investigate the escape will begin its work with an ocular inspection of the PNP-IG detention cells today.

Former justice secretary Sedfrey Ordoñez said they would also schedule a talk with Galban.

"If he (Galban) is available tomorrow, we will do that, but for today he has not been notified of this gathering. But we do certainly want to hear from him. We will find that out tomorrow (today). That is why we want to conduct our proceedings tomorrow in Camp Crame itself," Ordoñez said.

Ordoñez disclosed the commission will have to know what other law enforcement agencies have done to help out.

The escape of Al-Ghozi, described as one of Southeast Asia’s top terrorists, caused an international furor and embarrassed the government of Mrs. Arroyo and her high-profile campaign against terror.

Al-Ghozi has admitted being a bomb maker for the Jemaah Islamiyah, a Jakarta-based Islamic fundamentalist group allegedly linked to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden blamed for the Bali resort bombings last year that left over 200 people dead.

Al-Ghozi was convicted last year after confessing to have used part of a huge explosives cache to blow up the Light Railway Transit (LRT) commuter train and other targets in Metro Manila on Dec. 30, 2000, killing 22 people. - With Aurea Calica, Jaime Laude