DFA awaiting report of RP embassy in Washington on Mancao’s arrest

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is awaiting a report from the Philippine embassy in Washington on the arrest and detention of cashiered police Senior Superintendent Cesar Mancao.

Gilberto Asuque, DFA spokesman, said Philippine officials in the US are monitoring Mancao’s situation to ensure that his rights are protected.

However, the DFA has no information on whether Mancao’s stay in the US is legal, he added.

Contrary to Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s claim, Mancao was arrested and did not turn himself in to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Asuque said.

Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said the government was formally informed of Mancao’s arrest through a legal notice sent by the US embassy in Manila to the DFA.

"This is really US investigation and we respect the legal processes there and would just closely watch the developments there because it’s their case," he said.

"But this (arrest) could help prove that there really has been a conspiracy to get information from the US inimical to the interests of the Arroyo government."

Defensor did not say whether Mancao would also be given legal assistance by the Philippine embassy as in the case of another Lacson protégé, dismissed police Deputy Director Michael Ray Aquino, who remains under detention in New Jersey.

The government will closely follow developments in the cases of Aquino and Mancao, he added.

The FBI took Mancao into custody in Miami, Florida in connection with the espionage case against Aquino and Filipino-born former FBI intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo.

Both Mancao and Aquino served in the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) headed by Lacson when he was Philippine National Police chief.

Aquino has been indicted for allegedly passing classified US information to current and former members of the Philippine government.

Aragoncillo was also investigated for separate allegations of stealing classified information from White House computers.

Meanwhile, a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) official said yesterday that Mancao might have "knowledge" on the alleged espionage activities of Aquino and Aragoncillo.

Claro de Castro Jr., the new NBI Interpol Division chief, said he believes there was basis for US authorities to issue a material witness warrant against Mancao, who was reported to have been working as a real estate and mortgage broker in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

"I think they have information that Mancao has knowledge, but I am not sure if he has direct involvement... (But) they would not have issued the warrant if there was no information that would help them in the case," he said.

De Castro said an assistant US attorney had reportedly applied for the material witness warrant, and that Mancao would be brought to New Jersey where Aragoncillo and Aquino are being tried. — Pia Lee-Brago, Evelyn Macairan, Paolo Romero