MANILA, 17 June 2005 — Police yesterday linked a mistress of former President Joseph Estrada to wiretaps of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s alleged poll-rigging instructions a day after the detained leader suggested that Arroyo be forced out of office.

National police chief Arturo Lomibao said a military intelligence agent had told investigators that he was paid 2 million pesos ($36,360) to claim he was the source of the wiretap, and that the money came from Larni Enriquez, known to be Estrada’s favorite mistress.

Estrada, toppled in a 2001 “people power” revolt, told the Philippine Star daily on Thursday he did not support moves to the destabilize Arroyo government.

But he said he would be willing to serve in any transitional government if Arroyo is thrown out of power.

“Our country needs a radical change. That’s the only solution,” said Estrada, who urged people last week to hit the streets to protest against Arroyo.

Hanging Tough

A defiant Arroyo said yesterday she will not lose her resolve to govern the Philippines.

“They think that by continuing to hit me, and to do it repeatedly, I will lose my resolve and ... I will not be able to lead our government,” Arroyo said in a speech in the southern province of Agusan del Sur.

“But I know that people who support me ... will continue to strengthen my governance for the good of the people.”

Accusations that Arroyo’s family pocketed huge illegal gambling payoffs, and last week’s emergence of an audio recording - allegedly of the president discussing a plan to rig the May 2004 election - have triggered a political storm and the most serious challenge to Arroyo’s administration.

Arroyo has remained silent on both accusations, which are the subjects of congressional investigations. She said she won’t answer questions by lawmakers, who will convene a hearing into the alleged wiretap on Tuesday, despite mounting pressure from politicians, the business sector and academics for her to publicly state if the voice on the tape is hers.

“I will not comment on the authenticity of the material that the accusers admit were illegally derived,” Arroyo said Thursday.

Paid to Pretend?

According to national police chief Lomibao, the intelligence agent, Sgt. Vidal Doble, pointed to former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) official Samuel Ong as the source of the money. Ong has gone into hiding with the help of some priests.

Authorities have charged Ong, who was dismissed from the NBI last year, with sedition. Last week, Ong claimed he got the wiretap recording from military intelligence agents. In it, a voice sounding like President Arroyo’s is heard talking by phone with Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano about how to ensure a million-vote victory margin.

Sergeant Doble, who was taken into police custody shortly after he was identified by Ong, claimed that Ong told him the money came from Estrada’s mistress.

Camp Crame

Enriquez and other “prominent personalities,” whose identities were not immediately revealed, will be invited for questioning in Camp Crame police general headquarters next week, Lomibao said.

Aside from the two million-peso payoff, Doble also claimed that he was threatened into consenting to be videotaped while “authenticating” the alleged wiretapped calls of President Arroyo and her husband and Commissioner Garcillano.

Ong, his aide Angelito “Lito” Santiago, on leave as an NBI photographer, Doble’s brother Reynaldo, and his female companion Marietta Santos, and a Chinese “mestizo” (creole) who allegedly brought the two million pesos, witnessed the filming at the 5th floor of the Imperial Hotel along Timog Avenue in Quezon City, Lomibao said.

Doble claimed that he split the two million pesos between himself, his brother, and Santiago, who each got 250,000 pesos while his female companion got 75,000 pesos.

As early as two days before Ong’s exposé on June 10, Doble claimed that he and Santos were under Santiago’s custody and were kept in the house of a certain Doctor Cherry in Manila’s Sampaloc district, guarded by several armed men.

The intelligence agent also said he and Santos were brought to the Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City, where they met with “prominent personalities” whom he refused to identify.

At around noon time on June 10, a few hours before Ong faced the press, Doble claimed he and Santos were brought to the San Carlos seminary where they met with opposition figure and actor Rez Cortez, Bishop Teodoro Bacani, and a media man he refused to identify. Ong later sought refuge at the seminary.

“Technical Sergeant Doble claimed that his presence and that of his female companion at the San Carlos Seminary was not of their own volition,” Lomibao said.

Doble then secretly contacted his wife, Arlene, who immediately flew to Manila from Kidapawan City, North Cotabato province, where she reported her husband’s alleged “illegal detention” to authorities.

Joint police and military forces, with the help of Balanga, Bataan Bishp Socrates Villegas eventually “rescued” Doble from the seminary.

Denial

Laarni Enriquez denied Doble’s allegation. “Never in my life have I seen or met Doble,” she said in a radio interview.

Enriquez told radio DZRH that the real target of police in hunting people responsible for releasing the wiretapped tapes was Estrada.

“And how am I capable of creating a controversy as big as this? And if this concerns the government and its leaders, why will I spend only two million pesos? This only proves that president Estrada is their real target,” Enriquez said in Filipino.

She also said she did not know Ong, the whistleblower on the wiretapped conversations.

Lomibao said Doble had told them that it was Ong who received the two million pesos from Enriquez.

She said that the allegation against her was part of a “script” aimed at pointing to the Estrada camp as the source of the tapes.

Estrada’s spokesman, Didagen Dilangalen dismissed the allegation as a “lot of nonsense.” He confirmed Enriquez’s claim that she did not know Ong or Doble.

“They are running amuck. The problem with this government is that every time they have a problem, they always blame the Estrada family,” Dilangalen said in a phone interview. (With input from Inquirer News Service & Agencies)