FBI to help in Viña slay case

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is set to furnish the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) information on the alleged assassin of former Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) Senior Superintendent Teofilo Viña.

Ricardo Diaz of the NBI-International Police (Interpol) said the FBI is likely to rely on suspect Medar Cruz’s Social Security number to ferret out more information about him. Cruz, who used to live in Virginia, was accused of shooting Viña to death while the latter was about to go home from a drinking spree with him last Jan. 7.

"The FBI can trace transactions (made by) Cruz through (his) Social Security number. We expect them to get the needed information in a week’s time," Diaz said.

Diaz described Cruz as "too mysterious" because the NBI has yet to come across any criminal record in Cruz’s past.

"He’s very mysterious. No one precipitated that shooting incident. Viña did not appear to have provoked Cruz into shooting him," he added.

Initial psychiatric tests conducted by the NBI on Cruz showed that he was sane but "capable of acting out aggression, based on a low level of maturity and poor impulse control." Cruz was also "found to be non-psychotic."

This developed as NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco said the FBI findings might provide a link between Viña’s killing and the abduction and murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

Meanwhile, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said claims made by Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya that Viña had planned to testify on Lacson’s alleged involvement in several high-profile crimes are "nothing but old lies."

"The problem with General Berroya is his bad habit of putting words in the mouth of dead persons so he can pursue his agenda of vilifying my name for propaganda purposes," Lacson said.

He added that it was very convenient for Berroya to use dead persons like Viña and Superintendent John Campos for his "sources," since these people can no longer confirm nor deny his allegations.

"If indeed Viña made a confession about the Dacer-Corbito case, why did Berroya wait until Viña is dead before making the revelation to media? Was it because Berroya found an opportunity to exploit Viña’s death by weaving tales that again put myself in a bad light?" Lacson asked.

Lacson said Berroya used the same tactic when he said that Campos was about to squeal on his former colleagues when he was shot dead by an assassin, who remains unidentified up to now, in Parañaque City last Dec. 5.

"It’s the same script that he probably made up while doing time in prison. Only, he changes characters from time to time to conveniently fit today’s headlines. And he has been doing this for the past two and half years," he said. "What else do you expect from a certified congenital liar?"

Earlier, Berroya, director of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Civil Security Group, said he met Viña with former national police chief and now Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Mendoza’s former chief of staff, Rex Piad, over lunch in mid-2001.

Berroya was then chief of the PNP’s intelligence division.

Piad confirmed there was such a meeting.

Viña told Berroya that he would testify against Lacson if he and his family will be assured of protection under the government’s witness protection program, Piad said.

Piad added that Viña claimed "nothing could happen" in the PAOCTF without Lacson’s knowledge.

Berroya said it appeared that people who were reportedly intending to turn their back on Lacson were being "eased out," referring to Viña and Chief Inspector John Campos.

Viña was shot in Tanza, Cavite last Jan. 7 and died at 8:25 p.m., about an hour after at least four assailants interrupted his drinking session with Tanza barangay councilor Flaviano Satsatin in Barangay Santol.

He was one of the principal suspects in the celebrated Dacer-Corbito case, in which he was allegedly the overall "operator."

Viña, former chief of PAOCTF in Central Visayas, was absent without leave (AWOL) at the time he died. He was a trusted man of Lacson’s protege Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino, who is also AWOL and believed to be out of the country.

Cruz, 26, was arrested by Cavite police shortly after the incident. The other suspects are still at large.

Wycoco said their probe also seeks to establish a possible connection between the two assassination attempts on self-proclaimed undercover agent Mary "Rosebud" Ong, and the the killings of Campos, her former lover, and Viña.

According to Wycoco, Ong managed to escape being killed on Oct. 21 and on Nov. 28.

Wycoco said they are tracking down a certain Josue Arenas, a retired policeman and Cruz’s alleged cohort.

Wycoco said Arenas was seen at the crime scene but has gone into hiding. He added Cruz also tested positive for powder burns in a paraffin test, which meant he fired a gun.