Bankrupt Rosebud seeks government’s help

Former anti-narcotics agent Mary Ong, alias Rosebud, is appealing to President Arroyo to help her in reclaiming her residential property in Parañaque City after it was ordered foreclosed by a bank last Friday.

"I hope President Arroyo can help me with this," said Ong in a text message to this reporter.

Since she became a state witness against the alleged drug link of opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson, Ong said she was not able to pay the mortgage of a house she owned in Parañaque City. As of 1999, she said she owes the bank P2 million.

In seeking the President’s help, Ong is hoping the Philippine National Police (PNP) would pay her some P2 million for her role in "Operation Plan: Athena," where she signed up as an agent for the defunct Anti-Narcotics Group. She also said she has yet to collect some P2 million in agent fees for Operation Plan Cyclops which was conceived in 1999.

Ong, 49, also expressed disappointment that the government has neglected her concerns after she was placed under the protective custody of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

Before she revealed a series of exposés against Lacson, Ong worked as a secret agent of the PNP and helped in going after members of the Chinese triad where she also met and had an affair with slain Superintendent John Campos.

Ong was prompted to spill the beans on top PNP officials involved in the illicit drug trade after the love affair fizzled out.

Campos was shot dead in a noodle house in Parañaque City in December 2002.

The case remains unsolved.