How Dumlao got off is as puzzling as why he got into the PNP in the first place. From narratives of college buddies, Dumlao was a cadre of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which the police at the time listed as a threat to internal security. In 1981 to 1984, he led demonstrations at St. Louis University in Baguio. His fervor as youth organizer earned him the presidency of the militant League of Filipino Students-Baguio chapter. The CPP soon recruited him, and he in turn recruited fellow-activists.
Dumlao suddenly deserted his underground comrades and entered the Philippine Military Academy. After landing at the top of his class, he joined the Constabulary which later became the PNP. Senior Supt. Michael Ray Aquino handpicked him for Joseph Estrada’s Presidential Anti-Crime Commission in 1992, and later to the PAOCTF.
Dumlao, along with six of his men, is also linked to the 1999 murder of Quirino barangay captain Morjil Valencia. Dumlao’s cousin, Gov. Pedro Bacani, had wanted Valencia to sign some papers to clear himself of fund anomalies at the provincial capitol. Valencia refused and left, followed by Dumlao. Hours later, his body was found with hands cut off, eyes gouged and toenails pulled out.
Viña, who hails from Cavite like most of Dacer’s confessed killers, was recruited by townmate former PNP and PAOCTF chief Panfilo Lacson. He claims to have been in Cebu when Dacer was kidnapped and killed on Nov. 24, 2000. But an airline manifest lists him as having flown from Cebu to Manila and back on that day.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo got a police-military intelligence report last week that prompted her to disband the PAOCTF. It described criminal activities of top PAOCTF officers. Among their rackets: forming kidnap-for-ransom and bank robbery gangs to raise money, then "neutralizing" the gangs for publicity and promotion to higher rank. The report named Viña as handler of the Spider Group, composed of dismissed soldiers and policemen who double as goons of a former governor.
It was through forming-disbanding crime gangs that PAOCTF also mastered how to compartmentalize. On need-to-know basis – in layman terms, what you don’t know won’t hurt you – certain PAOCTF men and civilian agents would handle only specific portions of an operation. One team specialized in abduction, another in execution, still another in disposing of evidence. In Dacer’s case, one group took care of grabbing him and his driver in broad daylight and delivering them to a Cavite safehouse. Another group, made to believe Dacer was a drug lord, tried to extract a confession and, failing to do so, killed him and burned his body. Dumlao first hid Dacer’s car but later pushed it down a ravine.
It was a messy job – as messy as PAOCTF’s philosophy. Two of Viña’s arrested men swore in affidavits and one cried to justice officials that they thought all the while the operation on Dacer was legitimate. They apparently are of the belief that since they got specific orders from Dumlao to execute a supposed crime lord, everything’s alright.
Given this mindset, it’s not just Mendoza who has some explaining to do. Lacson, who’s running for senator, too must tell the public why he indoctrinated his men to think they have a right to kidnap, torture, kill and cremate crime suspects, much less innocent civilians. Problem is, Lacson might be too busy these days planning, as he declared in a campaign rally, to shoot people at the Luneta in case his opponents sweep the elections.
But Nañagas doesn’t seem chastised. A day after the announcement, he promised to throw more SSS money – P2.5 billion – into Equitable-PCIBank, one of the questioned investments of former SSS chief Carlos Arellano in the first place. Too, he neglected to consult new Government Corporate Counsel Amado Valdez about his twin moves.
Nañagas probably doesn’t understand. He’s in his post to protect the interest of millions of SSS members and dependents. He got it on the say-so of Romulo to GMA, who in turn was swept to Malacañang by EDSA-II. People Power-II was all about good government and justice. People were tired of Estrada’s boozing and incensed with his exposed thievery. They marched to EDSA when Estrada’s 11 Senate cohorts thwarted presentation of evidence to impeach him. In the aftermath, people expect transparency and accountability from new officials. Too, they want justice for the plunder of public money.
What met them was frustrating. With little explanation and much haste, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez granted immunity to Arellano and former GSIS head Federico Pascual. This, in exchange for their testimony that Estrada forced them to invest SSS-GSIS money in BW Resources. But that isn’t the only case where members’ money was used. Crony Mark Jimenez also got Arellano and Pascual to help Metro Pacific buy PLDT, and Equitable to acquire PCIBank. Too, crony William Gatchalian got them to invest in his Waterfront Hotels, where Estrada is silent partner.
At least four times, Arellano and Pascual went along with Estrada’s evil ways despite their responsibility to act with due diligence like a good father of a family. Four times, too, their board trustees and officers collaborated with them. They even increased the trustees’ per diems and officers’ salaries as reward for compliance.
Now comes Nañagas crying that SSS alone lost P8 billion from the four forced investments. Yet his solution is to force in turn members and their employers to contribute more to the fund, lest it sink in seven years. Where, the members rightfully asked, is the justice in making the victims pay for the crime? Where is transparency and accountability in arbitrarily raising contributions without consultation or promise of more benefits? Nañagas is the type of official who provokes people into marching to EDSA for People Power revolt after revolt.
Had Nañagas consulted Valdez, he would have found out that the government counsel can sue Estrada, Arellano, Pascual and their trustees and officers for civil damages to recover the loot. Valdez can ask the court to freeze the assets of the accused preparatory to forfeiture. Plus, he can file separate criminal charges for misuse of SSS-GSIS funds. That is justice.
Nañagas cries that SSS posted a P3.5-billion net loss under Arellano in 2000. Yet he committed to plunk P2.5 billion into the Equitable-PCIBank within three months as the SSS share in the bank’s P10-billion capital call. That’s throwing good money after bad, considering that he’s saying SSS lost and continues to lose in the acquisition of two board seats.
For too long have members been questioning faulty investment of their money by SSS officials. Under Arellano, they were met with press releases that present only half the picture; that is, how much SSS supposedly gained from the stock market but not how much it also lost. Now that half the truth is out about the P8-billion fiasco, Nañagas must explain why he’s so eager to throw away another P2.5 billion. That is transparency and accountability.