Atong linked before to Bentain mystery

Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson was in contact with Atong Ang long before the latter was extradited Friday to Manila from the US. They used to be bitter foes, but apparently buried the hatchet last year.

Singson had accused Ang in Oct. 2000 of stealing for then-President Joseph Estrada P130 million in tobacco taxes. After which, at the height of street protests that toppled Estrada in Jan. 2001, Ang fled to Las Vegas but subsequently was jailed by US lawmen. In May 2005, Ang, under house arrest and mad that Estrada had not aided him, sent a handwritten letter to President Gloria Arroyo. In it, sources say, he disclosed knowledge of many unsolved crimes: the Kuratong Baleleng massacre of 1995, the abduction of casino employee Edgar Bentain in 1999, and the murder of publicist Bubby Dacer in 2000.

A copy of that letter mysteriously reached Estrada. Ang suddenly received phone calls warning him against rattling in case he gets extradited. One of the callers, according to Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez who worked for Ang’s repatriation, was a certain "Zubia". Another, Singson adds, is "Acop". Singson interceded with Philippine authorities for tight security for Ang when fetched by the NBI from Las Vegas.

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Gonzalez and Singson say the Bentain case finally may be solved if Ang talks. Ang has yet to fulfill a pledge to write down what he knows.

Investigators will check if Ang’s story tallies with that of his former gambling buddy Danny Devnani. In an affidavit in Aug. 2001 Devnani had linked Ang to the mysterious disappearance of the video-camera machinist at the Heritage Hotel casino.

Bentain supposedly had leaked to the press, during the presidential campaign of 1998, a video clip of then-Vice President Estrada playing high-stakes baccarat with Ang. Government officials are prohibited from casino gaming, so their betting of millions of pesos per deal was used against candidate Estrada. Presiding over the game was casino manager Butch Tenorio. A man was standing behind Estrada, occasionally coaching him. That was Devnani.

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Devnani swore in his affidavit that news of Bentain’s abduction from the Silahis Hotel Casino in 1999 scared him. He then recalled an incident:

"Some months after the 1998 elections, I met with Atong at Heritage Hotel to tell him of my complaint that my credit line for gambling was ordered cut by Casino Filipino. I sought his help to make arrangements with Butch for the restoration of my credit line. I believed then that Atong was malakas with Mr. Tenorio, and could persuade him to accommodate my request.

"Atong told me he was not the right person to make representations with Butch. ‘Nag-away kami sa harap ng Presidente at nasampal ko siya,’ he said, referring to Tenorio. Atong confided to me that the slapping incident took place while he berated Butch for failing to prevent the leakage of the videotape that had embarrassed him and Erap.

"I asked Atong if he already had identified the person responsible for absconding with the videotape and releasing it to the media. To which he replied: ‘Alam ko ‘yan. Kami na bahala. Malapit na.’ I did not give importance to Atong’s statement until an incident took place, which convinced me that the same had an ominous and possibly fatal consequence to the person responsible for the videotape leakage."

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One night in Jan. 1999, after retiring from the gambling table at the Silahis casino, Devnani decided to sup at the Chinese restaurant on the ground floor. To get there, he had to pass through the hotel coffeeshop, where he spotted his pal Ang, with his chief bodyguard, a policeman, and one Eddie-boy Villanueva (more on him in future columns). Ang’s eight or so security escorts sat at an adjoining table. Devnani went on:

"Atong looked very worried and disturbed, and was juggling cellular phones to answer calls. I walked towards him and waited for him to finish his calls... He said, ‘kumusta?’ Intrigued why Atong looked so bothered, I asked: ‘Bakit ganyan ka, may problema ka ba?’ He answered: ‘Alam mo naman marami akong problema. Sige uwi ka na at tatawagan na lang kita mamaya para mag-karaoke tayo.’ I excused myself to proceed to the restaurant.

"While pacing towards (sic) the restaurant, I greeted one of Atong’s bodyguards, who was approaching me some five meters away from Atong. I asked this bodyguard, ‘Ano problema ni One-Five (referring to Ang by his CB-radio call sign)?’ The bodyguard whispered, ‘Nandiyan si Bentain.’

"I did not pay much attention to such remark, and proceeded to dine before repairing home. Days later I read in the papers about the abduction of Bentain."

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A year since passage by the House of Reps and two months by the Senate, the two versions of the Bio-fuels Act have yet to be reconciled. Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri and Sen. Miriam Santiago, as authors, keep pounding on the urgency to promote production, and require the mix of local ethanol and ester with imported gasoline and diesel. Finally tomorrow a bicameral panel will meet. Expect fireworks over two contentious items.

The first has to do with extra powers of the Department of Energy. The agency is first tasked to confiscate fuel stocks that do not meet the mandated blends: for ethanol, 5% within the second year, 10% on the fourth year; for bio-diesel, 1% on the first year, 2% on the second. In the House version, the DoE shall also review and increase the bio-fuel blends as deemed appropriate. But the Senate, as if distrusting a clamor for local fuels, allows for lowering of the blends. Zubiri calls it a copout that goes against the aim of mandatory use of renewable and cleaner bio-fuels. Only an archipelago-wide disaster can destroy all the sugarcane, corn or cassava needed for ethanol, and coconut or jatropha for bio-diesel, he says. In which case, there is nothing wrong with temporary imports if only to keep the air clean and engines efficient.

The other item, more controversial, involves vested interests. For, while the House version is silent, the Senate’s would ban the erection of ethanol plants anywhere near sugar mills. In effect, while sugar planters eagerly are awaiting passage of the law, those in Negros, Panay, Bukidnon, Tarlac, Pampanga and Batangas will have no ethanol makers to whom to sell their canes. Perhaps senators are wary that consumers will run out of table sugar if most planters sell to fuel blenders. But then, the proviso is an unconstitutional restraint of trade – in favor of sugar millers.

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