‘Ador’ now links Jude to diamond smuggling

Destabilization plots, the murder of a publicist and his driver, the murder of a casino employee, a drug deal involving a police general and known businessman, and now... diamond smuggling.

The former civilian agent of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) who linked Sen. Panfilo Lacson to a number of organized crimes revealed yesterday he was also involved in diamond smuggling for one of the sons of disgraced former President Joseph Estrada.

Angelo Mawanay, 28, alias "Ador," made the new revelations yesterday after he tested negative for shabu and marijuana in an examination conducted by the Presidential Security Group Station Hospital.

In a handwritten affidavit, Mawanay claimed he was part of a team, composed of about 13 people and led by Lacson top aide Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, which recovered diamonds from a shipment of garbage from Japan last year.

Sometime last year, Mawanay said Aquino asked him to report to a warehouse In Intramuros, Manila. When he arrived, there were already other people whom he presumed to be fellow PAOCTF agents.

A red 18-wheel cargo truck from the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) later brought a container van containing used baby diapers inside the warehouse.

"When the container van was downloaded and opened, the foul smell of urine and wet garbage emitted from the van," he recalled.

All of the 13 "PAOCTF agents" were then given rubber gloves and were directed to dig up the wastes because diamonds were discreetly hidden inside the diapers.

"We were ordered by Michael Ray Aquino to take out the diapers and not to play with them because the epektos (or, contraband) were discreetly hidden inside," Mawanay said.

Mawanay described the diamonds to be as big as the tip of a woman’s little finger.

It took the team almost two days to find the contraband among the soiled diapers. The van was later brought back to the MICT.

Mawanay said the diamonds were all placed in two resealable 18 inch x 24 inch plastic bag and stored in a traveling bag.

He later accompanied one of his fellow agents, identified only as Mang Ben, to the Polk Street in Greenhills, San Juan where Estrada’s son Jude was waiting.

"Jude asked us to come back the next day to deliver the second bag to a certain Allan Roman," Mawanay said.

Mawanay described Roman as jeweler who owns a store near Fairmart in Cubao, Quezon City. Jude handed P10,000 to Mang Ben and Mawanay for the job.

Mawanay had also linked Jude to the disappearance of casino employee Edgar Bentain who disappeared after he leaked a videotape showing the former president gambling in a casino.

Mawanay claimed Jude paid Aquino some P15 million for Bentain’s liquidation.