Witnesses vs Lumbao; a witness like Rivero

Pols from Joseph Estrada’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino claim that the May 1 assault on Malacanang by their followers was spontaneous. But going by witnesses’ accounts in the rebellion case against agitator Ronald Lumbao, it was planned all along - complete with funding, firearms, dry runs and crowd maneuvers.

The case filed by State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco lists six initial witnesses. One is freelance reporter Joel Operario Amongo, who swore that he attended a meeting sometime last March at the house of his pal Roque Fermo on Luzon Street, Filinvest Homes, Batasan Hills, Quezon City. Fermo, PMP chairman for the city’s second district, discussed the need to assemble hundreds of thousands of Estrada supporters - more than the crowd at EDSA-2 if possible - to reinstate Estrada. The rally was to be held a week later at Quezon Memorial Circle. It did materialize, but not with the desired numbers.

Amongo said he joined Fermo in a second demonstration at the Supreme Court. There, Fermo said Lumbao would soon join them as head of the People’s Movement Against Poverty. Fermo also disclosed to Amongo that he had received millions of pesos from then-senatorial candidate Loi Ejercito, Estrada’s first wife, to mobilize an even bigger rally at the EDSA Shrine.

On April 29, four days after Estrada’s arrest for plunder, Amongo joined the throng of supporters at the shrine. He stayed onstage, where he met a woman with ID tag "Madeline, Production." He saw her in huddles with Lumbao, Sen. Tito Sotto, Rep. Butz Aquino, senatorial candidates Jamby Madrigal and Dong Puno, John Regala and Estrada’s son JV Ejercity, a mayoral candidate. Amongo heard Madeline tell Madrigal, "Maam, nagrereklamo na ang mga tao, gusto nang sumalakay sa Malacanang." Madrigal replied that they were waiting for the final decision of senatorial candidates Ping Lacson, Juan Ponce Enrile and Gringo Honasan. Amongo said that Lumbao and senatorial candidate Miriam Santiago also exhorted the crowd: "Lusubin na ang Malacanang."

Two other witnesses are NBI special investigators Reuel Arellano and Akmat Sampang Jr. Ordered to monitor the rally on April 30 to May 1, the agents reported a mob of 30,000 shouting "Lusob, lusob" in chorus while "they were being agitated by Lumbao, Enrile, Madrigal and Aquino." The agents noted Lumbao urging the crowd to "stay with him up to the last fight and until their cause is achieved," then instructing them at about 12:50 a.m. of May 1 to line up along Ortigas Avenue to prepare to march to Malacanang. Lumbao then ordered the crowd to march, shouting "Ngayon na, ngayon na, lusob na, lusob na."

Witness Leticia Babila taped and transcribed Lumbao’s speech. At one point, Lumbao cried: "Tatlong araw na akong napupuyat, ay hindi pa man bumababa si Gloria. Baka yung apat o limang araw, mamatay na ko sa sakit, hindi pa rin bababa si Gloria. Talagang hindi bababa si Gloria hangga’t tayong lahat ay nagdadalawang-isip ... Libo man dito sa entablado, kung wala sa harap ang milyon-milyong mahihirap, hindi magtatagumpay ang EDSA-3, higit sa lahat ay hindi maibabalik sa kapangyarihan ang pamahalaang Estrada."

Hours later at dawn of May 1, the agitated mob attacked the seat of government with guns, molotov cocktails, knives and lead pipes. On cue, they marched from different directions and broke through police lines. They set fire on police cars, an ambulance and an outpost, three TV news vans, a bulldozer and a food stall. Newspaper initially reported six killed, two of them policemen, and 113 injured in fighting that lasted for 12 hours. About 170 rioters were arrested; one out of every three was high on shabu.

Prosecutor Velasco noted: "Not only was there an overt act of rebellion here. There was also a clear existence of political motive ... to restore to power their leader who is facing 13 criminal charges ranging from perjury to plunder." Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno recommended no bail for Lumbao.

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Senate Minority Leader Nene Pimentel was right all the while in not delivering last week "the privilege speech that never was." He had a hunch that self-styled whistleblower Robert Rivero might not stand by his claim that First Spouse Mike Arroyo had used charity sweepstakes money for the campaign of four administration senatorial candidates. Instead, Sen. Ping Lacson delivered the speech drafted by Demaree Raval, special consultant of Sen. Edgardo Angara. Lacson must be cringing in his office by now. For, his informant Rivero is - as Pimentel guessed - trying to disclaim on radio having implicated his closest broadcaster-friends to alleged payola.

Lacson’s woes began Tuesday when Rivero’s signed and notarized affidavit somehow leaked to the press. In it, Rivero listed commentators from radio stations DZXL, DZBB, DZMM and DZRH to be on his payola to promote the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. In the list too are TV talk show hosts from ABC-5 and RPN-9. Rivero had wanted to take back the affidavit, for fear of antagonizing the radio-TV celebrities against Lacson and the Senate opposition. More so since the radio anchors aver that they took money from him, while the TV hosts say the amounts were legitimate payments for commercials aired in their shows. But Rivero had a problem: he cannot just take back an affidavit that he already had subscribed and sworn to before Notary Public Arnold Corporal, who filed it as Document No. 394, Page No. 79, Book No. II, Series of 2001.

Copies of the affidavit circulated fast among media circles. Rivero didn’t know anymore who has a copy and who doesn’t. In a wild swing last Wednesday morning, he went on radio twice on DZBB, telling the anchors separately that they weren’t in his affidavit. Yet they knew Rivero was lying for they’ve read their names from the draft speech that Pimentel disowned but Raval distributed to Senate reporters last week. The anchors simply taped Rivero’s claims, preparatory to filing criminal charges and defending their honor in whatever ethics inquiry there might be.

To muddle the issue of his signed and notarized affidavit, Rivero instead rattled on air another list - this time not in affidavit form - of newspaper columnists who allegedly were rewarded by Malacanang with board seats in government corporations. University Prof. Alex Magno, one of those on the list, noted that he’d seen it before. It was a scandal sheet that Angara supposedly had drawn up three months ago, but didn’t have the courage to release himself. The list included Rivero, who at that time was still a consultant with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Media practitioners say Angara had good legal reason to release the list through Rivero. It wasn’t so much for fear of turning the press against himself. It was more because of the malicious implication that columnists and commentators take on government jobs simply for the money and not with a sincere desire to serve. It could backfire on Angara. If the list were traced back to him, he would have opened himself to questions like, "So why are you in government as senator - to cover up how, during the Marcos years, your favored law firm drafted the decree to collect the now missing coconut levy from farmers?" It would’ve opened other opposition senators to questions like, "Are you there in the hope of reinstating Estrada and then taking more mahjong balato from him?"

Rivero’s affidavit, while showing him to his peers to be an unreliable witness who disclaims what he signed and notarized, also weakens Lacson’s case in his privilege speech last week. Citing Rivero as his informant, he had accused Mike Arroyo of using P250 million in PCSO funds for the senatorial campaign. Yet nowhere in the affidavit was there any mention that the supposed media payola came from the government agency. If it were to be believed, the money came from Sen. Joker Arroyo (no relation), who during his stint at congressman used to be teased by reporters for being too stingy that he wouldn’t even hire an office staff.

Moreover, Rivero’s supposed payoffs - mre thousands and not millions - were made from May 16 to July 18, well after the campaign ended. The money was clearly for ads aired on radio and TV shows of the listed anchors and hosts.

Then again, Lacson may have achieved his purpose. Malacanang has said that he accused the two Arroyos of fund misuse only to divert public attention from allegations in the Senate of his narcotrafficking and other heinous crimes. The Senate abruptly has terminated hearings on him. Majority and opposition senators are instead fighting over which committee rightly should investigate Lacson’s unsubstantiated claims.

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