‘Jueteng witness got millions to discredit GMA, allies’

Who is the self-confessed jueteng operator stirring up yet another high-reaching tempest over the illegal numbers game?

Law enforcers claimed yesterday that Wilfredo Mayor received a hefty sum from a lawmaker to discredit President Arroyo and her administration by linking officials and members of her family to the illegal numbers game.

A ranking law enforcement official said a background check revealed Mayor had allegedly received between P4 million to P6 million from a lawmaker to destroy the reputation of the First Family and government officials by linking them to jueteng payoffs.

The official said they conducted a background check on Mayor two weeks ago even before they received instructions from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

He said they knew all along that Mayor would be presented as a witness before the Senate hearing which began its inquiry over the jueteng issue on Monday.

"We began our investigation about two weeks ago," the official said.

"We have received reports in the Bicol province that a lawmaker reportedly paid him between P4 million and P6 million just to surface as a witness against presidential son Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel ‘Mikey’ Arroyo," he said.

The same official revealed the jueteng operator’s real name is Wilfredo Montemayor.

Even as the Senate inquiry over jueteng unfolded last Monday, the official noted Mayor’s statement linking the Pampanga lawmaker and presidential son to payoffs was weak since it was based on hearsay.

Mayor had claimed a supposed bagman had told him one of the supposed beneficiaries of jueteng payoffs was Rep. Arroyo.

The official noted that Mayor confessed that supposed mediators had collected the payoffs from him.

Mayor told the Senate that Rep. Arroyo was receiving the payoffs while still a Pampanga vice governor in 2002.

He claimed he gave at least P600,000 to Arroyo through Arthur Naguit, a former local official in Pampanga who reportedly acted as a bagman.

Mayor also claimed Albay Rep. Carlos Imperial received P300,000 while former lawmaker Criselda Lagman-Luistro of the same province received P250,000. He also said Albay Rep. Joey Salceda received P400,000 a month in jueteng payola.

Mayor also claimed some ranking police officials and journalists in Metro Manila were raking in up to P4 million in payola.

He also said Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao was on the take.

Notwithstanding the apparent lapses in Mayor’s testimony, the official claimed the "damage was already done because this (Senate hearing) turned out to be a trial by publicity."

"This is a perception game," he said. "There is no legality here, he was merely pointing at people and that cannot be used as evidence."

The official noted the testimonies were made "not only against the First Family but (as a means of) political destabilization."

"The question now is who would be interested in destroying the Arroyo administration? Who would benefit?"

The official said the Arroyo administration and officials who were linked to the jueteng controversy will fight back through the media.

The source said Mayor ran but lost in the vice mayoralty race in Daraga town in Albay.

Mayor reportedly got involved with high rollers in casino gambling and ended up facing a string of estafa cases in the Bicol, the official said.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco, on the other hand, declined to comment on allegations made by Mayor that some ranking bureau chiefs and agents were on the take from the illegal numbers game.

"Pass muna ako. Let us await for further developments and just come out with one statement," Wycoco said.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Malacañang knew all along that Rep. Arroyo and his father, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, would be linked by Mayor in the jueteng scandal.

"We all knew that even before, they were being linked. There are insinuations, innuendos (about) who is M1, who is M2, and who is JS7," Ermita said.

"You know, that’s the one that catches fire in public. And this is being covered by the mass media," Ermita said during an interview in EDSA Shangri-La Hotel late Monday.

Ermita claimed anyone like Mayor could make up the accusations.

"It is so easy to destroy people by just coming up with certain accusations and innuendos," Ermita said.

He said detractors are using the media to destroy the image of the First Family.

"Because the one being accused is the First Gentleman, the story is being blown up. But other than that, I suppose even (Lingayen-Dagupan) Archbishop (Oscar) Cruz said they haven’t seen any evidence" against the First Family, Ermita said.

Ermita also doubted Cruz was part of a plan to destabilize the government.

"In my opinion, as far as Archbishop Cruz is concerned, the person is a priest, a Catholic bishop. In my opinion it is not his desire to destabilize. His advocacy is really genuine against the illegal numbers game or jueteng. The good bishop… has an advocacy," Ermita said.

He said that hints of destabilization were evident in claims made by Mayor during the Senate hearing.

Ermita then likened the situation of destabilization to a round of boxing.

"The way I put it, just like in boxing, I told them (reporters) before, it’s like body punching. Body punches against the government in order to weaken it," he said.

For his part, Lomibao said he was taken aback by Mayor’s allegations linking him to jueteng payoffs. — With Sandy Araneta, Cecille Suerte Felipe