The FBI’s agents were already shadowing Aragoncillo for months before arrest

If you ask me, former Police Col. Michael Ray Aquino’s goose is royally cooked. He’s in a New York jail on espionage charges for having been "fed" 101 classified documents from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

His alleged source, FBI agent Leandro Aragoncillo is in an ever worse fix. An employee of the FBI, a US citizen of Filipino extraction, he filched the information and documents from his agency’s files. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, with a United States paranoid about its security – its tightening of the screws more stringent under the Patriot Act – what Aragoncillo did will probably be adjudged tantamount to high treason. In the old days, traitors were shot. What his fate could be I won’t even begin to speculate.

Aragoncillo, indeed, was the instrument of his own destruction. He was recorded having visited former President Joseph "Erap" twice when the latter was incarcerated in the Veterans Memorial Hospital. Erap, afterwards, was reported to have indiscreetly bragged about his "agent in the CIA." Perhaps Erap got the name of the agency wrong, but the Americans seem to have little doubt he was referring to Aragoncillo.

In case you don’t remember, no matter what precautions you take, the US taps your phone or cellphone, if you’re designated as a target of their satellites – their "spies" in the sky. In this light, the question is moot as to whether the US is spying on the Philippines. With its satellites and other electronic devices, not just HUMINT, the Americans spy on everybody, including each other.

Do we spy on the Americans – as in the case of Michael Ray Aquino? Or Erap, Ping Lacson, Aquilino Pimentel, etc. . . . even Roilo Golez who got e-mails or more from Michael Ray? Why not? But I must say, in our case, we are the Mister Clumsies of the amateur espionage circuit. The Israelis spy on their allies and "patrons" the Americans much more effectively. Not all the Jewish spies are circumcised, I’ll wager.

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What’s deplorable is that the opposition leaders who’ve admitted to having "received" e-mail from Michael Ray Aquino appear to have been interested in information from the FBI files derogatory to GMA and her government officials. If this is true, and I must say it still remains to be established, I must comment that it’s abominable to resort to pawning through the garbage reports of foreign spooks who’ve been prying into our own country’s secrets. I guess it’s par for the course though if you believe in the old adage that "all’s fair in love and war." And politics in the Philippines is no less bloody than war.

The tragic figure in this sordid affair is Aragoncillo himself, who ruined a prospectively successful future and disgraced his own previous good record by being engaged in such a stupid caper.

When I interviewed President GMA on Impact last Monday, she declined to comment on Michael Ray Aquino – for TV. Afterwards, while we were having a private lunch in Malacañang, GMA was more forthcoming, sharing with us in our intimate group which included Babe Romualdez and Press Secretary Toting Bunye, the "information" she had been given by the Americans and our own government resources.

Aragoncillo, 46, a former Marine, had been introducing himself as belonging to the staff of US Vice-President Dick Cheney. No wonder he got a Top-A security clearance when he joined the FBI as an analyst.

Aragoncillo, who emigrated to the United States in 1984, began working for the FBI in July 2004 after he retired from the Marine Corps. His 21-year career in the Marines had been exemplary, during which he received six Good Conduct Medals (an irony today) and a Humanitarian Service Medal. He was even assigned to the White House between 1999 and 2002 during the Bill Clinton administration.

By golly. His recent conduct was very strange indeed. I wouldn’t be surprised if they threw the book at him, short of sending him to the firing squad.

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Zipping back and forth between Manila and Cebu City these days is a breeze. We got on a Philippine Airlines Airbus at 3 p.m. yesterday and in just a bit over an hour we were landing in Manila. It’s easier for me to get to Cebu than to my hometown in Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur up north.

The hotel picture is improving dramatically in Cebu, too. While our STAR group stayed in palatial Waterfront Hotel (& Casino) on Salinas Drive in Lahug, Cebu City proper which boasts 562 guest rooms and suites – there’s another Waterfront Hotel at the Mactan International Airport – more hotels are springing up to give it competition. The Waterfront’s restaurants continue to give it an edge, however: The Tin Gow Chinese restaurant, La Gondola (Italian), the Treff Oyster Bar, Cafe Uno, Cafe Fortuna, Madeleine, Pool Aquarius, of course the Lobby Lounge which is filled with rubberneckers night and day – plus, outside the hotel, at the edge of the building, a charming seafood eater called "The Port."

We had lunch yesterday, before dashing to the airport, at the Waterfront’s well-appointed, new Japanese restaurant, "MIZU", where the food was both authentic and delicious.

I was joined at lunch by my old friend, former Congressman Dodong Gullas, who’s now Executive Vice-President of the University of the Visayas (UV), which has 15,000 students in its main campus, and another 5,000 in its branches. The Gullas family are our partners in "THE FREEMAN" which is now being run by The STAR, in particular by our President and CEO Miguel Belmonte who commutes between Manila and Cebu regularly. Miguel brought along Ms. Marissa N. Fernan, the daughter of the late Chief Justice and Senate President Marcelo B. Fernan. Marissa not only runs the huge SM complex in Cebu’s reclamation area (which is almost at a par with SM Megamall on EDSA in the Ortigas Center) but is a consultant of Cebu Provincial Governor Gwen Garcia, as well.

The exciting new hotel which opened February, though, is the HILTON Cebu Resort & Spa in Mactan, practically beside the legendary Mactan Shangri-la.

The new HILTON has 246 stylishly appointed rooms, including one and two bedroom suites, deluxe rooms, executive floor rooms, and an Executive Club Lounge. Most of the rooms have "ocean views," the HILTON owner, the incredibly well-travelled owner of the entire shebang, Manny Osmeña, assured me. The hotel has a white sand beach, landscaped gardens – and, like the Mactan Shangri-la, claims to be only 20 minutes away by car or other vehicle from Cebu City’s downtown.

Manny, naturally, treated us to a six course dinner to demonstrate that his Italian chef, Stefano Verrillo, could produce the most elegant haute cuisine in the hotel’s premier restaurant, just off the lobby, called "SEAS." To impress us, Manny and his German General Manager, Mr. Wolfgang Maier from Mainz, had prepared a full-dress Menu Degustation, featuring scallops, duckling Aiguilletes, Seafood Bisque with Basil, Lobster with Arugula Risotto and Porcini mushrooms, and a choice of either Pacific Lobster, Black Angus Beef Mignon with Truffle paste in Pericoux Sauce, or Lamb Noisette, Vieux Port and White Truffle flavoured oil.

Since this isn’t our LIFESTYLE section I won’t elaborate, nor would I dare sound pretentious. In the old, more simple days, however, could you have imagined such a Menu in charming Cebu? Not being a gastronome or a culinary expert, I won’t attempt to enthuse further on the food – but what the heck: We enjoyed Manny Osmeña’s adventurous accounts of his travels to Europe and Asia most of all, including a riotous Oktoberfest in Munich in which he had "scored" on Night One. Scored what? In those days he had been a bachelor, but is now, he claims, a grandfather – so I won’t tell.

In any event, we didn’t stay there, but I can say without hesitation that the HILTON’s cooking is to be recommended.