Palace exec faces raps for P1-M extort attempt

President Arroyo has ordered the dismissal of a ranking Malacañang official reportedly caught on surveillance camera trying to extort P1 million from Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) officials.

The dismissal came after DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza named former undersecretary Nolan Sison of the Office of Media and Ecclesiastical Affairs as the man who demanded the money in exchange for withdrawing a smear campaign on his pending confirmation by the Commission on Appointments (CA).

Mendoza said he is also filing criminal charges with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Sison as well as several journalists and public relations practitioners.

"We will prosecute them to the end. Maybe they have forgotten that I was once a PNP (Philippine National Police) chief when they tried to extort money from us," Mendoza said.

He said a camera surveillance system caught Sison soliciting P1 million from certain DOTC officials.

Mendoza said Sison claimed to represent the Philippine Monitoring Group (PMG), a supposed anti-graft watchdog.

The DOTC chief also implicated Richard Rivera, a former newscaster of state-run RPN-9 television who reportedly resigned before the May 10 elections to manage the media group of the opposition Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP).

The PMG demanded P1 million in exchange for withdrawing a smear campaign against Mendoza to influence his possible confirmation by the CA, the DOTC said.

Sison’s former boss, Secretary Conrado Limcaoco, now head of the Cabinet Office for Provincial Events (COPE), said he was not aware that his former deputy was involved in extortion activities.

Limcaoco added that he was also not aware that President Arroyo had fired Sison after he was named by Mendoza in an extortion attempt.

"All I know is he (Sison) resigned few weeks ago," Limcaoco told The STAR.

Limcaoco though confirmed Sison was connected with his former office, which was virtually abolished after the President created COPE and he was appointed to head the new office last month.

"So his (Sison’s) position was practically no longer existing and as far as I know, he has gone back to the private sector," he said.

Limcaoco expressed disbelief that Sison, whom he described as a member of a religious group, would be involved in high-level extortion.

He also vouched for Sison’s being "very helpful" to Mrs. Arroyo during the last campaign.

"So I’m genuinely surprised about that report on him (Sison)," Limcaoco said.

Limcaoco recalled Sison telling him a couple of weeks earlier of a planned "exposé" against the DOTC.

"He (Sison) was trying to warn me about it. I don’t even know what the exposé was all about. What he did with that, I just don’t know," he said.

"I just told him (Sison) to just drop it. Don’t pay attention to it," he quoted himself telling his former deputy.

Limcaoco expressed relief that he was not implicated in the allegations. He even provided The STAR the contact number of Sison so that the former official could air his side.

In a statement, the DOTC said Sison and his group have been trying to contact its officials since June.

"They (PMG) first threatened to publish alleged anomalies in DOTC during President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) if we do not settle with them," according to one DOTC official.

"We told them to go ahead after all we have nothing to hide," the same official said.

PMG failed to make good its threat until Sison managed to arrange a meeting last Aug. 2.

Sison reportedly gave DOTC officials one week to produce the money under threat of launching the demolition job against Mendoza and other DOTC officials.

"This time, they made good their threat because they published baseless and unfounded accusation against us in several tabloids last Aug. 20," one official said.

An entrapment operation was set last Aug. 23 where a hidden video camera caught Sison entering the premises of the DOTC.

Sison was reportedly accompanied by Tim Orbos but this was not shown on video. Orbos is the younger brother of former Pangasinan governor and television host Oscar Orbos.

Sison reportedly told DOTC that PMG is a spin-off of the KNP media group which disbanded after opposition standard-bearer Fernando Poe Jr. lost the presidential elections last May.

Left on their own, the group formed the PMG with the mission to harass government officials under the guise of pursuing a crusade against corruption, the DOTC said.

Sison, a former dzRH reporter, reportedly admitted their group has a network of journalists in their employ.

The DOTC said "PMG even falsely used the name of President Arroyo by claiming that the President had authorized the PMG to conduct a lifestyle check among DOTC officials."

Malacañang later denied that it authorized the group to conduct lifestyle checks.