Lacson: PNP did not purchase surveillance equipment

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) head Director General Panfilo Lacson denied yesterday that the police purchased sophisticated bugging devices in the past months.

"It is true that we planned to procure surveillance equipment but it did not materialize," said Lacson in reaction to a The STAR report yesterday that a PNP supplier claimed to have delivered the surveillance equipment to the PNP.

However, sources within Camp Crame claimed that aside from direct wiretapping activities, the PAOCTF is also allegedly using the personnel and facilities of the country’s largest telephone company in its illegal surveillance operations.

The sources, requesting anonymity for safety reasons, revealed that the Investigation and Safety Center (ISC) of the Philippine Long Distance Co. (PLDT) is being illicitly used as a front by the PAOCTF in its operations.

According to the source, the ISC, formerly known as QCI, is a PLDT unit which has the capacity to interconnect with PLDT’s various exchanges all over the country.

Unknown to PLDT management, the PAOCTF has long penetrated the PLDT-ISC and is being used for illegal operations.

"The ISC does the wiretapping and the PAOCTF supervises the whole operations," the source said, stressing that PLDT employees were probably being paid for the "service."

The PLDT-ISC is composed of sophisticated electronic systems and is manned by one of Lacson’s most useful assets since he was still chief of the defunct Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC).

"It is the ISC which serves basically as the extension office for the PAOCTF’s technical service and provides them with regular phone bills," the source added.

While Lacson was not available to comment on the claim that the PAOCTF is using PLDT facilities in its surveillance operations, he maintained that the police did not purchase the P46-million worth of bugging devices due to lack of funds.

The supplier told The STAR that he was prepared to face a Senate inquiry into the police acquisition of sophisticated bugging devices worth some P46 million.

Lacson, however, insisted yesterday that the plan was shelved because of funding problems and also because the G-900 tracking device was not adaptable to the country’s weather conditions.

Echoing Lacson, PAOCTF deputy director for operations Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino even told The STAR that they do not use such equipment.

"We do not have such equipment. Our men use man-to-man posting during anti-kidnapping operations," Aquino said in reaction to claims that most of the PAOCTF’s accomplishments could be attributed to the use of such bugging devices.

PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome also said that lack of funds prevented the police from acquiring the bugging devices, which he called "essential equipment."

"We have proposals to procure the crime-busting essential equipment but we do not have funds to procure them since the Congress did not approve the allocations in the PNP’s 2000 budget," said Bartolome.

However, sources at Camp Crame maintained that the PNP and PAOCTF had purchased the bugging devices through their intelligence funds in order to avoid auditing technicalities.

A ranking police intelligence officer privy to the anti-kidnapping operations of the PAOCTF verified the use of the bugging equipment and said he did not expect Lacson to admit to the use of such devices.

He did reveal that Lacson and his group have been using these paraphernalia since they were still serving under the PACC which was headed by then-Vice President Joseph Estrada.

"In fact, the task force utilizes these equipment in monitoring and follow-up operations related to kidnapping activities in Metro Manila," the intelligence officer said.

Several surveillance equipment were acquired when the PACC was formed in 1992 and were periodically upgraded.

"The equipment were upgraded from time to time until the PACC was renamed PAOCTF," the source added, explaining that Lacson cannot admit this because his intelligence budget will be cut by Congress.

As it is, the source said, the police intelligence budget is already endangered by allegations that the PAOCTF had been monitoring the calls made by officials of the Senate impeachment tribunal and other public figures.

Lacson denied ordering a surveillance operation on officers of the impeachment court and blamed a telephone company employee for leaking confidential telephone call records to reporters.

He even vowed to disband the PAOCTF once it is proven that it has been monitoring movements of the opposition leaders, congressmen and journalists.

"If any of my people committed the acts as described in the newspapers, then I think I would have lost effective control over the task force and there is no reason to remain there a minute longer," Lacson had told reporters.