Erap: US officials bugged my phone talks with Aragoncillo

Ousted President Joseph Estrada said yesterday he was notified by an American court that US authorities bugged his telephone conversations with a former FBI analyst charged with illegally revealing US government secrets.

Estrada previously acknowledged receiving American government assessments of Philippine political events from Leandro Aragoncillo, who has been accused of downloading confidential US information and passing it to other people while working as an FBI intelligence analyst.

Estrada told The Associated Press he received a notice from a New Jersey court, which informed him that some of his telephone conversations with Aragoncillo were wiretapped by US authorities.

The notice, received by his son a few weeks ago, indicated that the wiretapping, done in the course of investigating Aragoncillo, was authorized by the New Jersey court, Estrada said.

Estrada said there was no indication that he was being investigated by US authorities.

"The notice said that my telephone calls with Aragoncillo were wiretapped," Estrada told The AP in a telephone interview. "The wiretapping was authorized by the court."

Michael Drewniak, spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office in Newark, New Jersey, has refused to comment on the alleged wiretapping.

"Even if that were so, I would not comment on it," Drewniak said last week.

Aragoncillo, a 21-year Filipino-American and Marine veteran who became an FBI intelligence analyst in 2004, was arrested in the US last year. He has been charged with conspiring to reveal government secrets, acting as a foreign agent and improperly using FBI computers. Those charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years.

He has not been charged with espionage, which carries a maximum penalty of capital punishment.

Estrada was toppled on charges of corruption in 2001 and has been on trial since then. He is scheduled to take the witness stand on Wednesday.

He has acknowledged conversing with Aragoncillo by telephone and receiving US government documents on the political situation in the Philippines, but he played down their value, saying the assessments were similar to those being reported by Philippine newspapers.

Asked if he felt offended by the US action, Estrada replied: "My reaction is nothing, because even before this, I have admitted that I’ve talked with him... (and) that those details were nothing more than newspaper accounts of what’s happening in the country."

Estrada said he met Aragoncillo when he visited the United States while he was still president and was introduced to him and other White House staffers of Filipino descent. Their friendship blossomed, with Aragoncillo visiting him at the Malacañang presidential palace and in a hospital where Estrada was once confined.

Estrada earlier insisted that Aragoncillo passed on information to the Philippines not in exchange for money but out of his concern for his impoverished homeland. — AP