Estrada implicated, Laarni charged in mutiny

Ousted President Joseph Estrada and one of his former lawyers were implicated yesterday in the rebellion case filed against one of his alleged mistresses.

Former starlet Laarni Enriquez, one of the women in Estrada’s life, was charged with rebellion before the Department of Justice yesterday.

Liezl Magpoc, registered owner of a house in Mandaluyong City allegedly used by mutinous troops as a "staging point" for the July 27 attack on Makati City’s central business district, said Estrada and "a certain Attorney Flaminiano" tried to dissuade her from submitting an affidavit to police that Enriquez was the real owner of the house.

"Ex-President Erap asked me, ‘Na-submit mo na ang affidavit?’," Magpoc said in a four-page supplemental affidavit.

"I told him it is already being submitted. Then he told me, ‘Paki lang, bukas ninyo na lang i-submit, me naisip lang kami.’ I told him ‘Try ko po.’ Then he said, ‘Please lang ha.’"

Magpoc said she was about to submit her affidavit to the police on July 30, when "a certain Attorney Flaminiano" called to inform her that Estrada would like to know if she could hold the affidavit.

"But I interrupted him saying, ‘Attorney, nahihirapan na ako, gusto ko ng matapos ito’," she said in her supplemental affidavit.

"He (Flaminiano) then said, ‘Wait, the President will talk to you.’"

In her affidavit, Magpoc said Enriquez had executed a deed of sale in her favor, but they had an "explicit understanding" that the sale was "merely for convenience," and not in "any way intended to transfer ownership of such (property)."

Enriquez transferred the title to her name because Enriquez was having "difficulties" securing clearances and permits from Mandaluyong City Hall, she added.

Magpoc said she "did not exercise any act of ownership, possession nor control" over the house "at any time" despite the deed of sale.

It would be easier for Enriquez to "dispose of the property" if it were not registered in her name, she added.

Romy Escalona, an engineer of JELP Real Estate Development Corp., with offices on No. 1 Polk st., North Greenhills, San Juan, was dragged into the case after Magpoc had implicated him.

"Bakit ninyo ako pinahamak? Di ba may katiwala doon? Bakit inalis?" Chief Inspector Jesus Fernandez, chief of the EPD district legal service, quoted paragraphs 18 and 19 of Magpoc’s affidavit.

In the same affidavit, Escalona was quoted to have replied to Magpoc: "Sila Ma’am ang nagsabi at si Mayor na paalisin ka."

In the criminal complaint, the government accused Enriquez of supporting the July 27 failed mutiny of junior military officers.

Interior Undersecretary Agnes Devanadera told reporters 16 mutinous Marines, who laid siege on the posh Oakwood Premier apartment building and Glorietta mall in Makati’s central business district, had used a house in Mandaluyong owned by Enriquez as one of their "staging points."

Police recovered paraphernalia of the rebel soldiers in the house shortly after the mutiny was put down, he added.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco said his men are still trying to pinpoint the other "staging areas" of rebel soldiers, apart from those in Mandaluyong, San Juan and Makati.

"Obviously, 350 soldiers cannot be accommodated in these three houses," he said. "These soldiers came from different places like San Miguel (town in) Bulacan, the Visayas and Mindanao."

Meanwhile, lawyer Ricardo Diaz, chief of the NBI-International Police, said the charging of the mutinous soldiers before the Makati Regional Trial Court and a court martial will not constitute "double jeopardy."

Before "double jeopardy" could set in, a person must be charged in a court of competent jurisdiction, is arraigned, but the court dismisses the charges against him and he is later charged again for the same offense, he added.

Enriquez was charged along with Escalona, two persons known only as "Ma’am" and "Mayor" and several other unidentified people.

The police also charged them with violation of Presidential Decree 1866, as amended by Republic Act 8294, the law on illegal possession, manufacture, dealing in, acquisition or disposition of firearms, ammunition or explosives or instruments used in the manufacture of firearms and explosives.

However, police said they have no direct evidence linking Enriquez to the failed mutiny.

Enriquez’s lawyer Rufus Rodriguez called up The STAR last night to say his client is "not in hiding" but awaits the subpoena if the court acts on the rebellion charges against her.

"We will await the receipt of the subpoena together with the complaint affidavit against her so that we can answer the charges," Rodriguez, a former immigration commissioner during Estrada’s term, said.

He said the former actress "categorically and absolutely" denied any involvement in the Makati incident.

"She does not know any of the officers and men involved in that incident. She has never met any one of them," he said, adding that the items allegedly seized from Enriquez’s house were planted and that the raid itself was done without a search warrant.

"This is political harassment, pure and simple," Rodriguez said.

Police and military intelligence agents, headed by Metro Manila police commander Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco seized from the house bandoliers as well as flags and armbands used by mutinous Magdalo soldiers a few house after the military uprising ended.

Mandaluyong police director Superintendent Ericson Velasquez said the 16 Marines were identified through identification cards, pay slips, firearm licenses, certificates, service records, Ranger handbooks, special orders and other documents found in the house at 461 J.B. Vargas St., Barangay Bagong Silang.

They are: Captains Ruperto Reaso and Romulo Querado II Lt. Rommel Bognalbal, Sergeants Jigger Paculba, Mario Lopez, Jovito Pacleb, Romelo Sy, Wilfredo Leal, and Alexander Sicat, Staff Sergeants Philip Vitales, Lorenzo Matias, Randy Matias, Florencio Manangan, Cpl. Roel Molina, and Privates First Class Lorenzo Bimmao and Gregorio Sandagon.

Now detained, the 16 Marines told military intelligence that Sen. Gregorio Honasan, who as an Army colonel led a failed but bloody coup against President Corazon Aquino in 1989, had a "blood compact" with mutinous junior military officers in San Juan, Baclaran in Parañaque and other parts of the country.

Honasan had "a number of scars" in his left arm, indicating that he had slashed his arm during a "blood compact," the Marines added.

Under the Rules of Court, state prosecutors would decide whether to file charges in court after receiving evidence from both the government and the respondent. — With reports from Non Alquitran, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Marichu Villanueva, AFP