‘Atong’ putting up mall in California

Fugitive and suspected gambling lord Charlie "Atong" Ang is now helping set up a mall in Los Angeles, California with a nephew, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said in a report to the justice deparment.

In a letter to Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, Pimentel said he met Ang last month during a visit to Los Angeles, and that the fugitive was accompanied by his business partner and nephew, one Nino Lim.

"He was accompanied by a nephew of his... who is allegedly helping Ang put up a mall somewhere in LA," the senator said in his memorandum to the Department of Justice, which wants Ang extradited.

In their conversation, Pimentel recalled how Ang told him that he has never gone into hiding and has in fact applied for an investor’s visa in the United States, "and he will fight any attempt to extradite him on the grounds of ‘human rights’."

The senator said Ang, who is facing plunder charges along with his friend deposed President Joseph Estrada and six other people, maintained he had nothing to do with the alleged illegal operations of Estrada.

This was the reason Ang said his extradition and eventual prosecution would be a violation of his human rights, Pimentel explained.

Ang told Pimentel it would be difficult for him to be a state witness against the deposed leader without twisting an earlier testimony before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that he neither handled jueteng money nor opened bank accounts using false names.

The fugitive went to meet Pimentel, who was Blue Ribbon Committee chairman in the 11th Congress, on the night of June 13 at a house in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, during a birthday party attended by a common friend.

"He says he has no knowledge where the money subject of the plunder case had come from," the senator wrote in his memo.

Ang, according to Pimentel, also felt it unfair that jueteng whistle- blower former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson was not included in the rap sheet, and that relative non-entities were "nadamay" (brought into controversy) because of Singson.

Ang is presently consulting with his lawyer, Pancho Villaraza, regarding his dilemma on whether to return to the country to become state witness.

Another co-accused, Yolanda Ricaforte, is also staying in California, Ang disclosed. Both of them are subject to deportation because their passports have been canceled by the Department of Foreign Affairs.