BOMBSHELL IN CEBU : Ex-mayor’s son, to cocaine deal

CEBU CITY — A former member of the defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC) has exploded a bombshell that shook some prominent names in Cebu.

Manuel Omega, 53, accused former Customs collector David Odilao Jr., former Customs legal officer Paul Alcazaren, and Mark Weigel, the eldest son of former Lapu-Lapu City mayor Ernest Weigel Jr., of smuggling 61 kilos of cocaine in 1995.

Omega executed an affidavit with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) which, in turn, was submitted by NBI regional director Anthony Liongson to a House committee on dangerous drugs’ hearing here the other day.

Odilao and Alcazaren promptly called a press conference after the hearing to deny the accusations, branding Omega a man of dubious character.

Trusted man

Omega, a former PC constable, claiming he had been a trusted man of Alcazaren, said that in November 1995, he was instructed by Alcazaren, then the Customs assistant legal officer, to pick up two traveling bags at Odilao’s office on a Sunday morning.

He said he then brought the bags to the Odilao residence at Ming Court Subdivision in Talisay City.

Two days after, Omega said he was again instructed by Alcazaren to follow him to Chikaan Restaurant where they met Mark Weigel and a policeman.

From there, all four of them went to the Midtown Hotel where eight people who looked like Chinese, including a woman, waited in one of the rooms on the seventh floor.

Omega said Weigel gave the keys to the bags to one of the Chinese-looking men who then started opening the bags.

It was then he learned that the bags contained cocaine.

"After the 61 packs of cocaine were dropped on the floor, the woman opened one pack and took a sample from it, using her finger and placing it in her mouth and told the man who opened the door, ‘Daddy, class A, A-one,’ " Omega said.

P1,000 bills

Omega said the Chinese-looking man then handed him a white cloth bag with Traders Royal Bank markings and a yellow plastic bag containing bundles of P1,000 bills.

He said Weigel took the yellow bag. He himself proceeded to the parking lot where he gave the white bag to Alcazaren.

Omega said they then proceeded to Steve’s karaoke bar on Gen. Maxilom Avenue, one of the business establishments said to be owned by alleged drug lord Peter Lim. Odilao was there waiting.

Omega said Alcazaren again instructed him to get the key to Odilao’s car from his driver, Boy Yares, so he could transfer the money to the car.

Not long after the money was placed in the car, Odilao emerged from the bar and went home to Talisay. Omega and Alcazaren followed. There, Omega claimed to have been given P10,000 by Alcazaren.

Omega said he did not know where the drugs came from because he was merely asked by Alcazaren to get them from Odilao’s office.

He said it was Alcazaren himself who got the bags from the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Omega said as a trusted man of Alcazaren, he had been picking up luggage at the airport for two years.

The House committee on dangerous drugs has been conducting hearings in Cebu and has focused on the activities of alleged drug lords Peter Lim and his brother, Wellington.

‘Plain extortion’

Odilao, in the press conference he hastily called at the White Gold House with Alcazaren, said, "I can swear by a dozen Bibles we were not engaged in this kind of smuggling and will never engage in it. This is plain robbery and extortion."

Alcazaren presented to reporters recordings of a series of demands by Omega and a certain Tony Vargas for money in exchange for the withdrawal of the affidavit he executed.

Omega and Vargas are now said to be civilian agents of the NBI.

The conversations between Omega and a member of Alcazaren’s staff were recorded as the fax machine inside Alcazaren’s office is capable of recording all incoming and outgoing conversations.

Sensing that Vargas and Omega were trying to extort money, Alacazaren had the conversations with Omega and Vargas taped from Nov. 17 to Dec. 6.

In the recorded conversations, Omega demanded P50,000 while Vargas wanted P10,000.

Prior to the Nov. 17 telephone call, Alcazaren said he, Odilao, Vargas and Renato Mandawe, an NBI investigator, had lunch where he was informed of the affidavit.

Odilao wanted to see a copy of the affidavit but was not furnished one.

"The accusations against us are very unfair. The NBI is giving credence to a person with dubious character. I think the NBI should check its men. It is doing such a lousy job. It’s quite unfortunate that the NBI is being used in these shenanigans," Odilao said.

Alcazaren said he will be suing Omega for libel tomorrow and wants him to land in jail.

Ernest Luke Weigel, younger brother of Mark, took up the cudgels for him by also denying the accusations hurled by Omega.

Luke, president of the Association of Barangay Councils in Lapu-Lapu City, said the accusations against his brother are baseless.

Luke said Mark now lives in the United States.

Because of the Omega expose, the Regional Anti-Narcotics Office, headed by Vicente Loot, said it will look into the controversy.

In the Philippines, anybody caught with just 40 grams of cocaine can be meted the death penalty, if convicted.

Rep. Antonio Cuenco, chairman of the committee, said they are winding up their inquiry on the Lim brothers. He believes they now have sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against them.

Carlos Fuentes, former manager of Hilton Heavy Equipment, another company owned by Lim, testified that the Lim brothers had ties with suspected Chinese drug lord Ben Go.

Fuentes said Go visited Lim at his Hilton office at least five times and that his suspicions were aroused when Lim ordered the shredding and burning of import documents following the interception of a shabu shipment by the Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau in December 1991 in Pandacan, Manila. — Freeman News Service