Two Pinoys admit smuggling bomb parts into Vietnam

Four Filipinos were paid a total of P400,000 to deliver bomb-making components to international terrorists who are out to topple the government of Vietnam, police said yesterday.

Alfonso Espinosa and Paterno Degoma admitted working as couriers for the terrorist group headed by Nguyen Vinh Tan to smuggle bomb components from Manila to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam from May 24 to June 22 this year.

During tactical interrogation, both Espinosa and Degoma admitted they and two others were paid by Tan $200 for each trip to Vietnam. They made 10 deliveries in the said period, they said.

Tan, also known as Vo Van Duc and Victor, is a ranking leader of the Free Vietnam Revolutionary Movement (FVRM). He and another Vietnamese Nguyen Huu Chanh alias Tony and Japanese Makato Ito were arrested recently by government agents in San Juan.

Espinosa and Degoma and another Filipino, Joseph Boquecosa, an electrician from Baguio City, will be used by the government as prosecution witnesses to pin down Tan, Chanh and Ito. They were placed under the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Witness Protection Program (WPP).

Espinosa and Degoma claimed two prominent Filipinos, Datu Crecensio Dagasdas and Florina Estrada recruited them to join Tan’s group, who have been operating in the country since 1998.

Dagasdas and Estrada first used them as spotters of potential victims of the FVRM’s fake gold bars and federal notes racket, victimizing at least 20 governors and mayors nationwide.

Documents retrieved by the police in San Juan revealed that the local officials were gypped of P200,000 or more for the "mobi-lization" of the FVRM’s $47 billion gold deposit at the Central Bank, a police official privy to the probe said.

But these local officials refused to file charges against the three suspected terrorists, the police official told The Star.

Espinosa and Degoma said they decided to work as the FVRM’s couriers after their swindling activities became scarce.

"We are not earning enough for our families so we carried bomb-making materials to Vietnam which earned us $200 for each trip," said Espinosa.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) will coordinate with their counterparts in Vietnam to speed-up the arrest of other terrorists who recieved the bomb-making components from the four Filipino suspects.

Meanwhile, the PNP is working round-the-clock to identify and arrest other terrorists and their Filipino supporters who are still in the country.