Philippines planning to charge co-conspirators in US spy case

MANILA (AFP) - The Philippine government is considering charges against the co-conspirators of a senior White House aide jailed in the United States for passing top-secret documents to coup plotters in Manila.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Thursday the government was looking at filing charges of sedition and espionage against the Filipinos named by Leandro Aragoncillo.

Aragoncillo, a 48-year-old Filipino-American and former aide to US Vice Presidents Dick Cheney and Al Gore, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to passing classified information to opponents of President Gloria Arroyo.

Gonzalez refused to name the co-conspirators, but told reporters they were looking at those named by Aragoncillo during his US trial.

Deposed president Joseph Estrada, along with his ex-police chief and now Senator, Panfilo Lacson and former House of Representatives speaker Arnuflo Fuentebella, were named by US prosecutors as "unindicted co-conspirators."

"We will be looking at the entire records of his case," Gonzalez said.

"I will write to the US Department of State to furnish specific documents where some Filipino unindicted co-conspirators were named clearly in the documents," Gonzalez said.

Estrada, who is under house arrest while facing charges in the Philippines, has previously admitted receiving information from Aragoncillo but said they consisted of "newspaper clippings," and contained nothing secret.

Lacson and Fuentebella could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Gonzalez said the alleged co-conspirators "may have damaged the republic by exposing matters which are confidential in character, affected our defence situation or even the stability of the state itself."

An accomplice of Aragoncillo, Philippine police official Michael Ray Aquino, 41, was jailed Tuesday for channelling documents stolen by Arangoncillo from the US vice president's office to associates in the Philippines.

Estrada was ousted in 2001 in a popular uprising spawned by his corruption scandals. However, the government has also charged that he has been plotting to remove his successor in a bid to return to power.