Aventajado says he had only two ‘conversations’ with ‘Robot’ about money - BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven

Televiewers waited in vain till late last night for the anticipated "bombshell" to be detonated by Ilocos Sur Governor Luis "Chavit" Singson in the Senate impeachment trial. At this writing, of course, Chavit is still testifying (he went far beyond the earlier announced cut-off time of 7 p.m.) so we don’t know whether he made an eleventh hour "bomba" like politicians do in their mitings de abanse.

Some senators’ eyes were visibly drooping as the testimony droned on, with items of evidence being identified and certain doleouts of jueteng money being clarified, such as those to "Jimpol", etc. Although the Estrada impeachment hearings remain the biggest TV entertainment draw these days, people shouldn’t expect "drama" and excitement, and shocking "revelations" and allegations every day. The "trial" is a long-drawn process and there will be ups and downs. It’s not a telenovela or a soap opera with a predetermined storyline and plot, although, like those TV "soaps", it is full of odd characters.

Today, Chavit’s testimony will go on. There will be more legalistic thrust and parry. But if we insist on covering the impeachment case like a basketball game, as in those cage-contests don’t expect passion, bravura and "desperation" until the last two minutes. That’s when every goal and every foul will count. This is a game in which there are 22 referees (with the Supreme Court Chief Justice as the non-voting coach).

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Secretary Robert Aventajado, the chief hostage negotiator in the Jolo hostage drama who was slammed by the controversial Der Spiegel article, told me yesterday that neither the German police nor secret service (BND) could ever produce any so-called telephone "conversations" between him and Abu Sayyaf Kidnap Chief Ghalib Andang alias "Commander Robot" concerning ransom money because, he vowed, they never discussed such matters.

He declared that the only time money was ever mentioned were on two occasions and "they were only for small sums." One phone conversation occurred, Aventajado averred, on August 26 when "Robot" rang him up to threaten him that if the two Muslims caught trying to exchange "ransom" dollars for pesos in a Zamboanga City bank were not released immediately, he (Robot) would "behead" two of the hostages. At that point, Aventajado said, he promised to personally put up the P240,000 required by the Zamboanga court as a cash "bail" payment "provided I’m reimbursed finally."

The only other time money was discussed was when Robot again rang him up to rant and rave about a house which had been damaged by an army tank in the course of the pre-negotiation maneuverings by the military in Jolo. To appease Robot and the Abus, underscored Aventajado, he promised to pay the P300,000 demanded for the "repair" of the structure.

Aventajado denied the insinuations made in the Spiegel that he had allegedly pocketed ten percent of the US$20 million in ransom paid for the hostages, and that another 40 percent "could have" allegedly gone to President Estrada and shared with an unnamed security adviser and AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes. (Reyes himself has scoffed at the tale and said he refused to "dignify" the canard with a statement.)

Der Spiegel’s shocking article, on the other hand, has inflicted considerable damage to the reputation of our leadership and the Philippines in general, particularly in Western Europe where the weekly newsmagazine is well-respected. Aventajado said they were consulting with Filipino and German lawyers as to what steps to take. The first one, he said, would be to direct the Philippine Embassy in Berlin (through our Ambassador Jose "Toto" Zaide) to transmit a strong letter to the Editor of Der Spiegel complaining about the article, rectifying the facts, and denying the specific allegations. He stated he would invoke the formula of a Gegendarstellung (Letter of Legal Clarification) which, under German law, every magazine, newspaper, or other publication is required to print in full as the "reply" of those accused in a published article. (This remedy was suggested in this column yesterday.)

Aside from that, as I’ve said, I doubt if any libel case can be pursued in Germany itself. German law upholds the media as "the fourth pillar" or "fourth estate" of society and accords the press even more protection than our own laws. This is, apparently, in reaction to the long-ago Hitler regime when the Nazis regarded the press and media (and movie-making) as the tame lapdogs and a propaganda weapon of the Third Reich.

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To hear Aventajado tell it, the former German Ambassador, Wolfgang Goettelmann, had warned him repeatedly about the "meddling" in Jolo of the former Chief of the Federal Secret Service or Intelligence, BND, Bernd Schmidbauer and his "crony", a German private detective named Werner Mauss. Contrary to the media’s idea that Schmidbauer and Mauss were "authorized" by the German government to operate in the Jolo situation (such as enlisting the help of Libyan Strongman Moammar Ghaddafy), Aventajado alleged, they had been operating on their own – and following their own agenda.

Now there’s no love lost between this writer and Ambassador Goettelmann (who was retired by the German foreign ministry last October), but I have to say that Aventajado’s revelations can only get Herr Goettelmann in trouble, for he emerges (if R.A. is to be believed) as an extremely talkative and "helpful" (to Aventajado) envoy.

For instance, Aventajado swears, when the woman hostage Renate Wallert was on the point of being released (ahead of her husband and son) on July 17, Goettelmann had warned Aventajado not to hesitate but whisk the woman off to safety in Manila quickly "because Schmidbauer and Mauss might try to kidnap her again." Wow. Is that true? The story reads like some penny dreadful or espionage novel à la Ludlum or Le Carré. Why should Schmidbauer and Mauss abduct Wallert? To get the "glory" for themselves? To up the ransom? To embarrass the present Socialist Government (SPD) since both were allegedly Christian-Democrats (CDU), with Schmidbauer having been the BND Chief under ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl?

Wheels within wheels. According to Aventajado’s version, the Germans themselves were in disarray. He brought out an article published by STERN (Star) magazine to illustrate his point, which said that Ludger Volmer, the Minister of State at the German Foreign Office, had decried the activities of the two "uncommissioned mediators" which had "cost us and the hostages a minimum of one-month delay and great damage to our foreign relations." I guess that since Volmer belongs to the "Greens" (Grüne), the party now in the government coalition with the ruling SPD (Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is also a "Green"), there’s no love lost between them and the former majority party, the CDU.

Der Spiegel itself ran an article on Sept. 19 along similar lines whose headline I quoted yesterday: "Verzögerten Schmidbauer und Mauss Wallert-Freilassung?" (Did Schmidbauer and Mauss Delay the Release of the Wallerts?). In the piece, the current chief of the Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienstes) or BND, August Hanning, also confirmed "that there were uncoordinated actions among the Germans in Sulu." The magazine story asserted that "free riders" like Schmidbauer and Mauss had been the target of complaints from the French, the Finns, and the Libyan mediator sent by Ghadaffy, former Ambassador Rajab Azzarouk.

And yet, it was Mauss who had given Commander Robot the satellite telephone which enabled the Germans to "eavesdrop" on the record every conversation Robot had on the phone.

Anyway, Aventajado said yesterday that there was so much betrayal, doublecross, intrigue and even comedy in the six-month hostage drama that "I intend to write a book about it." (He invited me to co-author it, but I replied that I would rather, if I found the time, write a novel clearly identified as fiction so there would be no misunderstandings.)

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Aventajado went on to point out that when the German woman Renate Wallert, a school-teacher from Goettingen, was released after much to-and-fro haggling, he immediately put her inside an air-conditioned Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) to prevent her from being "kidnapped anew" and ferry her safely to the Army brigade headquarters in Jolo, the capital.

"Instead of looking sick, as she posed for visiting photographers during her three-month captivity," Aventajado narrated, "Mrs. Wallert appeared not only in good health but very well composed."

"As soon as she spotted reporters and cameramen from media, such as when we were walking towards the helicopter waiting to fly us to Zamboanga City," Robert noted, "Wallert would become another person. She would sag weakly against me, and cry out piteously, ‘When will my husband and son be released?’ while cameras clicked."

In Zamboanga, afterwards, when Mrs. Wallert was being escorted to the Citation II jet waiting to fly her on to Manila, Aventajado relates, she spotted some German reporters and began yelling replies to them in German (while the other reporters and foreign correspondents shouted, "English, please, English!"). The government negotiator pulled her towards the jet because the plan agreed upon with the German Embassy was for her press conference to be given in Manila. There was one persistent German lady journalist whom Wallert obviously favored, who pushed herself across the fence, and followed to the aircraft. Wallert then demanded that the woman reporter accompany them, stating: "I want her on board the plane with me!"

No way, Aventajado retorted.

Enroute, he recalled, an angry Mrs. Wallert even insulted him with the remark: "You didn’t do enough for us!" It turned out, he avers, that the three Wallerts (through their other son who remained behind in Goettingen) had already made deals with the television group SAT-2 and STERN (Star) magazine for "exclusive interviews." The husband, Werner Wallert, 57, a geography teacher, was next released, and their son, Marc Wallert, 27, was finally set free in July. They all gave interviews and wrote articles on their captivity, and Werner (the father) is now completing a book.

Just goes to show that Germany’s media showed great interest in the hostage drama, and this interest continues to embarrass us still.

Incidentally, the Der Spiegel article leads with the photograph of a grim-faced Estrada obviously in a gangster role (Asiong Salonga?) holding an automatic pistol.

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Aventajado declares that Robot and his Abu group never wavered from a demand that $1-million ransom be paid per hostage. (In the end, he estimated, some $19 to $20 million must have been paid). He continues to deny that any of this "loot" was pocketed by him or the President.

The reason he decreed a "cooling-off" period of a month between June and July and froze negotiations was because his first five "negotiators", led by Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan and Dr. Farouk Hussein (the "foreign minister" of the Moro National Liberation Front) brought back a demand from the Abu Sayyaf kuno of an "outrageous $500 million ransom to be paid" for the 21 hostages seized from Malaysia’s Sipadan island.

He set up a second group which included "Dragon", retired Col. Ernesto Pacuño (whose wife is related to Robot), and another agent named "Dragonito", and several mayors while others like Lepeng Wee negotiated for the Malaysians.

Libyan Ambassador Azzarouk, Aventajado explained, in the end kept on assuring him that there was "already a deal" regarding the remaining hostages but Commander Robot would ring him up on that darned satellite phone of his (sez Aventajado) to tell him "not to believe Azzarouk, because there still is no deal!"

After a number of such "failed" incidents (between August 12 to August 19) Ambassador Azzarouk, in exasperation, grabbed Commander Robot’s Armalite, put its muzzle to his head and told him: "If you keep on trying to shame and embarrass me by telling me there is a deal, then calling up Aventajado to deny it and say there is no deal, then just pull the trigger and kill me and have done with it! Don’t kill me by inches by making me look like a liar and a cheat!"

That dramatic move was obviously what led to the denouément.

Aventajado sent "Dragon" to tell Robot: "I believe Azzarouk. Release the hostages, or else, I’ll pull out myself. Stop telling me there is no deal."

As for that madcap report that Robot is "willing" to come to Manila to testify and even "clear" Erap and Aventajado, let’s not give it any credence. Robot belongs in only one place – the garbage can.