US court paves way for Ang’s extradition

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — A judge has cleared the way for an extradition hearing for a former presidential adviser accused of looting his country’s treasury.

No hearing date was immediately set for Charlie "Atong" Ang, US attorney’s office spokeswoman Natalie Collins said yesterday.

Ang, 45, is accused of funneling tobacco tax kickbacks and illegal gambling payoffs to former President Joseph Estrada, who is standing trial on political corruption charges and could face the death penalty.

Ang moved to the United States in January 2001, the same month Estrada was ousted and arrested.

Ang was arrested at a Las Vegas strip hotel in November 2001 on a Philippine government warrant charging him with plunder, or theft of public funds. He spent a year in US custody in a North Las Vegas jail before he was freed on $300,000 bail.

He remained free Wednesday and has applied for political asylum.

In previous hearings, US magistrate Judge Lawrence Leavitt said he would not send Ang to the Philippines to face a death penalty charge.

US Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Cole, from the US Embassy in Manila, told Leavitt in July that Philippine authorities have promised to waive the death penalty if Ang is extradited.

In a written order issued Monday, Leavitt rejected Ang’s lawyer’s contention that plunder does not meet requirements for extradition.

Leavitt also denied Ang’s effort to block the US government from using recorded conversations between him and a former Philippine provincial governor, Luis Singson, as evidence at an extradition hearing.

Ang’s lawyer, William Genego, has argued that government lawyers could not prove Ang had a connection with three people alleged to have laundered P130 million ($2.5 million) in kickbacks from Singson.

At Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye welcomed the US federal court ruling that may lead to the granting of the request for Ang’s extradition.

"This is indeed a welcome development, especially coming as it does in the wake of our failure to extradite Mr. Rod Strunk," he said.

Strunk is the prime suspect in the murder of his wife, actress Nida Blanca. The Philippines’ request for Strunk’s extradition to face murder charges was denied by California magistrate Gregory Hollows.

"At least, in (the Ang) case our arrangement with the US is working, so we’re happy (with) this development," Bunye said.

He had earlier expressed disappointment over the seeming "one-sided" implementation of the RP-US extradition treaty regarding the Strunk case.

"On our part, we have followed to the letter the requirements of the American government," Bunye said, referring to the extradition of Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez to face charges of mail fraud and tax evasion, among others, in the US last year. "It is but right that there should be reciprocity."

Estrada has denied that Ang was his supposed bagman, as claimed by Singson. Both Ang and Singson were cronies of Estrada, but Singson abandoned him after Estrada insisted on implementing state-run "Bingo 2-Ball" gaming through the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

Ang’s extradition faces the obstacle of lack of compliance with the "dual criminality" doctrine of the RP-US extradition treaty. Under this doctrine, there must be an identical counterpart in the US to the Philippines’ plunder statute to pave the way for Ang’s extradition.

Leavitt said in his decision that "lack of an identical statutory counterpart is not determinative of the dual criminality issue. Despite the fact that the Philippines’ plunder statute was largely enacted to ‘disentangle grand-scale corruption,’ the United States statute can likewise be used to punish public officials or their accomplices for stealing or converting public funds."

Thus, the US magistrate said, "the court finds no bar to Ang’s extradition based on the dual criminality doctrine." The Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) or Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) statutes of the US, which have no counterpart in other countries, can be used as analogous to the Philippines’ plunder statute.

Justice Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez said Ang may still appeal Leavitt’s decision. If he loses the appeal, however, the judge will issue a certificate of surrender after finding probable cause for extradition.

"We are confident any appeal (by Ang) will be denied," Gutierrez said.

The Department of Justice also said President Arroyo already signed an undertaking that Ang, if convicted and meted the death penalty, will not be given the lethal injection but will serve out the maximum applicable jail term.

This is in compliance with the extradition treaty provision disallowing offenses punishable by death to be extraditable without a waiver from the requesting party. — AP, Marichu Villanueva, Aurea Calica