Testifying before a joint hearing of three Senate committees, Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Acop, former head of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Narcotics Group, admitted he deposited at least P2.1 million from a senator’s pork barrel fund in his bank account.
Acop said the P2.1 million came from the countrywide development fund of Sen. Vicente Sotto III and was supposed to be for the anti-narcotics intelligence activities of the PNP.
Virtually confirming the claims of former undercover narcotics agent Mary "Rosebud" Ong, Acop said he issued Ong a personal check for P2 million on Oct. 10, 1998 from the San Juan branch of the United Coconut Planters Bank.
He said Acop gave the P2.1 million to Ong, whom his office had allegedly failed to compensate for her services, after a bank foreclosed the mortgage on her house.
He also admitted giving her P100,000 because Ong was losing money from her alleged "illegal gambling operation."
In previous hearings of the same Senate panels, Ong had testified that Acop issued the check as "show money" for a big drug deal with a Hong Kong-based triad which smuggles shabu into the country.
Ong claimed Acop and his lieutenants used her to make contact with triad bosses in Hong Kong and conclude big drug deals which the NarcGroup would bust.
However, Ong claimed that on several instances NarcGroup officials would "kidnap" for ransom the triad members who would make the deliveries and seize the drugs but resell them to local drug traffickers.
Ong also claimed that she was with Acop in April 1999 when he took 10 kilos of shabu from a NarcGroup safehouse which, he supposedly admitted to her, he planned to sell to an unidentified buyer.
Ong said Acop’s subordinates even castigated her for bringing the former NarcGroup chief to the safehouse and depriving them of the 10 kilos which they had supposedly planned to divide among themselves.
But Acop denied the allegation, called it "another lie" by Ong and said he never dealt directly with the NarcGroup’s civilian undercover agents.
Ong refuted Acop’s retort by asking the Senate committees to subpoena Acop’s cellular phone billings to verify her claim.
Also yesterday, Ong claimed Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is included in the charges being probed by the Senate, was supposedly held by US Customs officials at the Canada-US border for trying to bring in $7 million dollars into the US.
She said Lacson was allegedly held by US Customs officials along with his friend, businessman Jerome Tang. She also claimed another Lacson confederate, former police Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, was also held for trying to bring in $1 million.
She learned of the incident from US Customs officials who questioned her at length on Lacson’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking and kidnapping.
But Lacson and Tang denied Ong’s charges, saying it was another of Ong’s "never-ending lies."
The two have recently returned from the US and they said they would not have been allowed entry or exit if it were true that charges were pending against them in the US.
Tang, owner of numerous Jollibee franchises and whose family owns electronic retail store Avesco, said he has never been to the US-Canadian border and added he may charge Ong with libel.
The senators, on the other hand, will have to further evaluate Ong’s new revelation.
More pointed was the senators’ reaction to the testimony of Acop and even accosted Acop for failing to fulfill his pledge to name government officials and other individuals who, he said, assist Hong Kong drug traffickers in their operations in the country.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. suggested the Senate panel subpoena the records of Acop’s accounts with the UCPB to determine if public money was indeed deposited in a private account.
Senators Joker Arroyo and Robert Barbers also said they will determine if it was legal for Acop to still be in possession of intelligence funds from Sotto’s CDF even if Acop was no longer with the NarcGroup.
After the hearing, Acop’s aide Senior Superintendent John Campos decried the time the Senate gave to Ong without giving equal time to him and his co-accused.
Making a scene before mediamen, Campos bewailed the "unfairness" of the situation.
"I am a bemedalled police officer. I received all the awards. I did not make money from drugs. Why are they doing this to me?" Campos asked furiously.
Campos was Ong’s "case officer" when she was still dealing with the Hong Kong triad as an undercover agent.
But Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said the only reason why Ong was given more time was because she named names while Acop did not.
On the other hand, Barbers, chairman of the joint hearings, said the panel did not have the time to hear his testimony but would give him the opportunity on Tuesday next week.