Lacson to German cops: Disown raps

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has asked its German counterpart to officially deny allegations that President Estrada and presidential adviser Robert Aventajado took a cut from ransom money paid for Western hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf.

"We are in talks with the German police," PNP chief Director General Panfilo Lacson said in an interview over radio dzMM.

Mr. Estrada and Lacson said the political opposition may be behind the allegations published by the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Der Spiegel reported that German secret police had tapped satellite phone conversations between the Abu Sayyaf and Aventajado, who negotiated with the bandits.

It quoted the German secret police as saying that Mr. Estrada and Aventajado took 40 percent and 10 percent respectively of a $20-million ransom payment for the release of unnamed hostages.

Suspicious over the timing of the article, Mr. Estrada yesterday claimed that former President Fidel Ramos’s party, the Lakas-NUCD, might be behind it.

"That is the information I received. As you know, the Lakas-NUCD, the Social Democrats are connected with Germany. I have not the complete report yet. I will let you know by tomorrow if there is really a political color here," he said.

Mr. Estrada and Aventajado are both mulling filing libel suits against the magazine either here or in Germany.

Lacson said the PNP had sent two officers to Germany at the request of Berlin to translate the exchanges between Aventajado and Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib Andang. Some of the exchanges were in the Sulu dialect of Tausug.

The transcripts provided by German police to their Filipino counterparts did not mention any kickbacks, he said.

"Nowhere in the conversations was there mentioned about commissions, much less the allusion that President Estrada got something or even suggestions that he would get anything," Lacson said.

Lacson suspected that the political opposition was involved in the publication of the article. "It is a locally initiated public relations aimed to target the international community," he said.

If the article is accurate, Lacson said, the magazine "should produce the tapes and prove their claims."

Press Secretary Ricardo Puno Jr. said the President’s lawyers are still deciding when and where to file the libel suit.

"First, as you know, criminal law is territorial: where the crime took place, you can sue there," Puno said. "But (the Der Spiegel report) was also coming out through the Internet and other facilities here in the Philippines. If we see it here in foreign newscasts, so it’s possible they can also be sued here."

Mr. Estrada has ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to also file a diplomatic protest against Der Spiegel "because their charges are baseless."

The DFA has demanded an apology either from the German secret police or Der Spiegel for its "sensationalized and unsubstantiated reporting."

Undersecretary Franklin Ebdalin said previous attempts by the Philippine Embassy in Berlin to obtain information on the source of the Der Spiegel article from the German secret service were unsuccessful.

German Embassy spokesman Ernst Schewering said "if they believe that they have been wronged, then by all means sue. There is nothing wrong with that. The German government is not in any way involved in the publication of Der Spiegel. It’s a private company."

Lacson also revealed yesterday that German police introduced a bugged satellite telephone into the Abu Sayyaf camp to enable them to monitor conversations Andang had with government negotiators and fellow rebels.

"German police gave them a satellite phone," Lacson said. "They obtained intelligence information from it."

It was unclear how the telephone ended in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf. The PNP said previously that the bandits had taken it from western journalists who paid the bandits for visits to their jungle camps and interviews with the hostages.

What Der Spiegel said

Der Spiegel said "German investigators and the German secret service, Bundesnachriebtendienst (BND), have grounds to believe that the highest Philippine politician also cleaned up nicely on the approximately 20 million dollars ransom which exchanged hands during the hostage crisis in Jolo."

It said Mr. Estrada was "supposed to have shared part of (the ransom) with a security adviser and army chief General Angelo Reyes."

But Reyes dismissed the allegation as a "comic relief."

"This article is ridiculous, it’s preposterous. I do not want to dignify this lie with a response," Reyes said.

At the beginning of the hostage crisis in late April, the BND "secretly passed a secret satellite phone" to Andang, better known as Commander Robot, and "therefore was able to listen in on all conversations between Robot and Aventajado."

"In addition, German investigators made their own contacts with the kidnappers in June in order to free the hostages without involvement of the Philippine government," the article said.

During those talks, Andang "demanded no more than $100,000 per head for the members of the family Wallert and the other hostages. Fifteen percent supposedly were to go to the South Philippine governor (Abdusakur) Tan, as customary in this region," Der Spiegel said.

Andang "exclusively was after the ransom money," the magazine continued, and he "even complained that Manila freely foisted political demands on him in which he had no interest." — With reports from Marichu Villanueva, Aurea Calica, Paolo Romero, Roel Pareño