DFA: German secret police denies being source of ransom story

The German secret service has officially denied being the source of allegations that President Estrada and Presidential Adviser Robert Aventajado pocketed ransom money from the Abu Sayyaf rebels early this year, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

"The same agency suggested the possibility that media members covering the hostage situation in Jolo (Sulu) could have been responsible for the Der Spiegel allegations," the DFA said in a statement.

Philippine Embassy officials in Berlin said the German secret service, the BND, told them that it never leaked any information on the hostage crisis.

President Estrada also yesterday asked new German Ambassador Herbert Jess, to help the Philippine government investigate the source of Der Spiegel’s story.

"I asked him to help us investigate where this information came from and I need factual investigation of the case," the President said.

Der Spiegel, a German weekly magazine, reported that the BND tapped satellite phone conversations between Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib Andang and Aventajado, who negotiated with the bandits.

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

The magazine also said that Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes and Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan also got cuts from ransom payments.

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

Aventajado demanded that Der Spiegel release "full transcripts" of his alleged telephone conversation with Abu Sayyaf leader Ghalib Andang, on which the weekly based its story.

Aventajado suspected that the "main source" of the article was a Filipina journalist who allegedly has a "personal relationship" with the head of a German foundation in Manila.

He said she is the sister of the executive of an influential business club which has been leading calls for Mr. Estrada’s resignation over the jueteng scandal.

Mr. Estrada suspected that the magazine article was masterminded by the Lakas-NUCD, a charge denied by the political opposition.

Mr. Estrada noted that the Lakas-NUCD, headed by his predecessor and critic, former President Fidel Ramos, is affiliated with the Christian Democrats International political party based in Germany.

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, who "therefore was able to listen in on all conversations between Robot and Aventajado," the Der Spiegel article said.

Andang "exclusively was after the ransom money," the magazine said, and he "even complained that Manila freely foisted political demands on him in which he had no interest."

Andang, according to the article, also complained that Aventajado was raising his ransom demands so he and Mr. Estrada could take cuts.

Earlier, Panfilo Lacson, director general of the Philippine National Police, said German police confirmed that the telephone exchanges did not indicate that Philippine officials made money from the Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis.

Lacson said the PNP had sent two officers to Germany at the request of Berlin to translate the exchanges, some of which were in Tausug, the dialect in Sulu. – With Marichu Villanueva