Al-Ghozi escape: Ex-PNP intel chief probed

A police general who once served as Philippine National Police (PNP) intelligence chief during the time of deposed President Joseph Estrada has been linked to the July 14 escape of Indonesian bomber Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf members.

According to PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Director Eduardo Matillano, the probe on Al-Ghozi’s escape is now geared at establishing the personalities close to Superintendent Reuben Galban, head of the PNP Intelligence Group’s Foreign Intelligence Liaison Office (FILO).

PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane has relieved the entire personnel of the Intelligence Group (IG) to allay suspicions of a whitewash as a probe into the escape gets underway.

Matillano said Galban was known to be a protégé of Chief Superintendent Julius Yarcia, chief of the PNP Directorate for Intelligence during the Estrada administration when the PNP chief was Panfilo Lacson, now an opposition senator and declared presidential aspirant.

Yarcia remains active in the PNP but has been assigned to the PNP Administration Holding Center, the PNP’s designated "career freezer."

Matillano said a background check revealed that Galban was a former Marine officer assigned to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

He was assigned to the FILO when the PNP-IG was under the late Chief Superintendent Romulo Sales and Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, a protégé of Lacson who is now a fugitive from justice, Matillano added.

The CIDG chief said lie detectors tests on Galban suggested that the intelligence official was lying when he answered questions on whether he had anything to with the escape or if he had accepted money for the escape.

"There was abnormality in his temperature, indicating that he was not saying the truth," he said.

Galban, for his part, denied that he was hiding from investigators and would face the CIDG probers along with his lawyer.

"Haharapin ko ito. Kailangan ko lang humanap ng abogado dahil mali na itong ginagawa nila sa akin (I will face this. I just need to find a lawyer because what they’re doing to me is already wrong)," Galban said.

Ebdane named incumbent PNP Directorate for Intelligence head Director Arturo Lomibao as concurrent officer-in-charge of the PNP-IG vice Chief Superintendent Jesus Verzosa, who resigned following Al-Ghozi’s escape.

Lomibao was put in charge of one of three police task forces formed by Ebdane yesterday to investigate how Al-Ghozi escaped and bring him back.

"We are now constantly monitoring several places in the country where the fugitive may have sought refuge," he said. Investigators are trying to determine if there was collusion between Al-Ghozi and his jail guards.

GMA pressures security officials

At Malacañang, President Arroyo pressed her security officials anew to recapture Al-Ghozi at the soonest possible time.

"I am resolved to put back the terrorist in jail as much as getting to the root of his escape and putting his alleged cohorts in the police jail," the President said.

"We have to focus on the manhunt with the same determination as we conduct the probe within the PNP to unearth possible collusion," the President said. "These twin objectives shall be pursued until accomplished."

"The dragnet has been spread far and wide while the newly formed fact-finding commission shall soon buckle down to work," she assured.

Mrs. Arroyo had earlier named former justice secretary Sedfrey Ordoñez, incumbent Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong and business leader Miguel Varela to a fact-finding commission to find out how Al-Ghozi escaped from the custody of the PNP Intelligence Group.

The Ordoñez commission had an organizational meeting at the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday with a 15-man team from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which has been tasked to assist them in the probe.

Ordoñez said the commission will try to resolve the Al-Ghozi controversy within the President’s 30-day deadline but clarified that the commission was formed on a strictly ad hoc basis.

"We will give this utmost priority (but) I hope our efforts will not be at cross purposes with the other official functions of those who belong to the commission," Ordoñez said.

Datumanong, for his part, vowed that no one would be spared in the investigation of the incident that has embarrassed the country before the international community.

"There will be no reservations whatsoever," Datumanong said. " It does not matter even if the ones investigating the case will also be the ones we’re going to hurt and hit. Everything has to be done in order to get to the bottom of what really happened."

Meanwhile, a government lawyer questioned why Al-Ghozi was detained at Camp Crame instead of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

The lawyer noted that Al-Ghozi had already been convicted last year for illegal possession of explosives and sentenced to 17 years in prison by the General Santos City court.

"Under normal circumstances, anyone convicted of a crime should be brought to the Bilibid Prison," the lawyer said. "The PNP will have to explain why he was detained in Camp Crame."

But the police will not have to explain details of the escape to the court until Aug. 20 because Judge Lucia Purugganan of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 54 reset his arraignment from July 30 to that date.

The date will coincide with the pre-trial of confessed terrorist Saifullah Yunos, alias Muklis, who pleaded guilty to charges of multiple murder stemming from the Dec. 30, 2000 bombings that killed 22 people and wounded over a hundred others.

No desire to head PNP

At the same time, Matillano complained that the Al-Ghozi case is being used as a springboard for a smear campaign aimed against him and PNP operations chief Deputy Director General Virtus Gil.

He said he had no ambition to become PNP chief and that rumors to that effect were only meant to discredit him and other senior PNP officials.

"I have no ambition to become the chief (of the) PNP," Matillano told reporters, noting that certain military officials he refused to identify were working to embarrass him.

The CIDG chief said this became evident after two Navy intelligence operatives were caught conducting an "unauthorized’ surveillance of Matillano’s home in Kingsville subdivision in Antipolo City.

Matillano’s son saw the two Navy men on board an L-300 Mitsubishi van videotaping Matillano’s house on Sunday afternoon.

When the two men were accosted by Matillano’s security detail, they said they were conducting the surveillance of Matillano’s home on orders of the Navy Intelligence Security Force (NISF).

But Navy chief Vice Admiral Ernesto de Leon said the two operatives were acting on their own.

PNP and Navy officials later established that the NISF men were acting on the orders of NISF deputy director Capt. Rex Ricomono, a classmate of Army Col. Oscarlito Mapalo, commander of the military’s Anti-Crime Task Force (ACTAF).

Matillano learned from the two Navy spies that Mapalo told Ricomono that Matillano was involved in the escape of Al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf members from the PNP’s Camp Crame headquarters on July 14.

"I was informed by Navy officials that Mapalo was known to be reporting to (an opposition) leader. Mapalo is behind all these disinformation (against him and Gil). He should explain why he is using government resources for personal motives," Matillano said.

The search goes on

Police believe that Al-Ghozi has not slipped out of the country and PNP chief Ebdane flew to Mindanao to supervise the hunt by 5,000 men, according to PNP community relations chief Director Ricardo de Leon.

He refused to give details about Ebdane’s trip, citing sensitive "operational details" but he said the PNP is working closely with Interpol and there appeared to be "major developments" in the hunt.

"All indications is that he is still in the Philippines," De Leon said in an interview with dzBB radio.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has ordered all its regional offices to watch out for Al-Ghozi in case he tries to secure a Philippine passport.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said he has asked the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to provide DFA regional offices with pictures of the Indonesian terrorist as well as simulations of possible disguises Al-Ghozi may take.

"We intend to do our part in the fight against terror. We do not limit our role to the diplomatic and political fronts in the war against terror. We will utilize all the resources of the department in winning this war," Ople said.

Al-Ghozi legends

Because of the police’s continued failure to capture Al-Ghozi, all kinds of speculations and legends are growing around him.

One Muslim merchant, who did not want to be identified, said Al-Ghozi was able to escape the detention center because he possessed an anting-anting (talisman) that opened the door to his cell and allowed him to escape.

However, Office of Muslim Affairs director Datu Zamzamin Ampatuan lent more credence to speculations that the authorities are having difficulty finding Al-Ghozi probably because he has already taken a disguise, possibly that of a woman.

Ampatuan said it would be easy for Al-Ghozi to disguise himself as a woman because Muslim women traditionally wear an opaque veil, called "hijab."

"Because of the wide circulation of his photo and possible disguises, many are convinced that Al-Ghozi is now disguised as a woman," Ampatuan said. — With reports from Perseus Echeminada, Roel Pareño, Marvyn Sy, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Mike Frialde, Aurea Calica, Jaime Laude, Marichu Villanueva, Katherine Adraneda, AFP, AP