Mikey tags ex-aide in SUV loaded with shabu

MANILA, Philippines - Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of the party-list group Ang Galing Pinoy said yesterday his former chief of staff, who is running for vice mayor of Caloocan City, should be the one to ask about a government-owned sport utility vehicle (SUV) seized by the police loaded with nine kilos of shabu.

In a text message to reporters, the eldest son of former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the police and the media should ask Antonio Mariano Almeda. He did not answer further questions.

Almeda quit his House job when he ran for congressman in Caloocan City in May 2010. He is running in the 2013 polls under the ticket of Caloocan District 1 Rep. Oscar Malapitan, who is running for mayor; and his son, Councilor Along Malapitan, who is seeking to replace his father as congressman.

The Mitsubishi Pajero the police seized from an alleged American drug dealer, disc jockey Brian Hill, belongs to the National Power Corp. (Napocor). The state agency said it had been trying to recover the vehicle from Almeda for the last two years, to no avail.

Sources in the House of Representatives said Mikey should have ordered the return of the vehicle when he lost the energy committee’s chairmanship, which he held during his mother’s administration.

“The vehicle is his responsibility since it was assigned to his office,” one congressman said.

Convicted of hazing death

In February this year, the Supreme Court ruled with finality on the 1991 hazing-related death of Ateneo student Lenny Villa, convicting his five Aquila Legis fraternity seniors, who included Almeda.

Convicted along with Almeda were Fidelito Dizon, Junel Anthony Ama, Renato Bantug Jr., and Vincent Tecson.

They were found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide, sentenced to “an indeterminate prison term of four months and one day to four years and two months” and ordered to pay damages.

Narcopolitics?

Militant group Bayan Muna’s Caloocan City chapter, led by Ferdinand Gundayao, urged Almeda to clear his name, saying that he “must explain why the vehicle under his name got involved in the illegal drug trade. That would not be a good image he would like to portray, especially to the youth in Caloocan.”

He said Bayan Muna will seek to find solutions to the “menace” of narcopolitics. “We don’t want to become a country run by drug lords,” he said.

Drug suspect requests probe

Hill has “requested for preliminary investigation, wherein he would submit his counter-affidavit,” said Chief Inspector Roque Merdeguia of the Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operation Task Force (AIDSOTF) investigation and legal division.

He added that Hill has been presented to State Prosecutor Anna Devanadera, who instructed him to present to the Department of Justice on Monday the Mitsubishi Pajero (SEP-825), where nine kilos of shabu was found during a raid on Hill’s condominium unit in Makati City last Nov. 19. Another kilo of shabu, five grams of cocaine, tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Valium and syringes were found in his unit.

AIDSOTF head Senior Superintendent Prudencio Bañas said they are in the process of finding out how the Pajero landed in Hill’s possession after Almeda used the vehicle in inspecting Napocor plants in Luzon and Samar when Arroyo was chairman of the House energy committee.

Bañas said Hill “had a sideline where he would work as a (disc jockey) in clubs and allegedly supplied drugs to some of the club-goers.” – With Pete Laude, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Edu Punay