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IT was a
plain and simple business transaction where some of
those involved saw an opportunity to launch a coup.
This was
how the National Police and the private complainants
described the latest exposed plot to overthrow the
government—and how it started—allegedly by the group of
lawyer and known Arroyo critic Homobono Adaza.
Adaza
and his alleged accomplices, former Army Lt. Col.
Oscarlito Mapalo, former Supt. Rafael Cardeño and
retired Cols. Ernie Amboy, Cesar de la Peña and Edgardo
Tapia, were presented before a panel of prosecutors from
the Department of Justice on Thursday in Camp Crame,
Quezon City, for inquest proceedings on charges of
“proposal to commit a coup.”
Adaza
and his companions were also subjected to inquest
proceedings on obstruction of justice and estafa charges
by a panel of prosecutors, headed by Senior State
Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco.
The
additional complaint of “using a fictitious name” was
also filed against Cardeño.
The
four, except Tapia, were arrested on Wednesday at the
Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Ortigas Complex in Pasig City
by members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection
Group for allegedly planning to topple the
administration or openly discussing it. Tapia is still
at large.
During
the proceedings, Adaza and all the other respondents
denied the charges, with the lawyer even insisting that
their arrest was illegal as it was not covered by a
search warrant.
Adaza,
who is acting as a collaborating counsel for himself and
his companions with lawyer Argee Guevarra, said their
arrest does not fall within the ambit of a warrantless
arrest as the policemen arrested them based on the
affidavit of witness-complainant lawyer Raymund Fortun
and the telephone conversation between Mapalo and
another witness, Joanne Laurilla.
“They
[arresting policemen] have no personal knowledge of the
case. They only acted based on the say so of one of
their witnesses,” he said, adding that the members of
the arresting team may have even violated the
Anti-Wiretapping Act.
Adaza
also branded Fortun “a pathological liar.”
Velasco
said the panel would resolve the charges against the
four as soon as possible as he noted of the arguments
raised by Adaza, who was allowed to remain at the
National Police General Hospital in Camp Crame until the
resolution of the charges against them.
Both the
Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces
dismissed of any move or even report of a coup and even
a move within the military.
“I don’t
have any information on the plot . . . there is no plot
in the Armed Forces. If there was really a plot, then it
would have been more secret and they wouldn’t have been
arrested,” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said.
“Wala
naman akong nararamdaman. Outside of the Armed
Forces, we have not monitored any move. Now, if ever the
investigation of the National Police will show that
there was such, except for Mapalo . . . we do not see
that as a serious concern,” Gen. Alexander Yano, Armed
Forces chief of staff, said.
Yano
said military authorities have not identified new
personalities, aside from the senior officers who are
currently detained on charges of mutiny, who could or
would be interested in carrying out destabilization
moves against the government.
Fortun,
who was interviewed after the inquest proceedings, said
he came to know and meet the group of Adaza through a
Japanese client, Motonori Sakuma, who retained his legal
services.
Sakuma,
who represents a group of Japanese investors who want to
operate a resort in Marinduque—Buenavista Island
Resort—through a company called Island Country Resorts
Inc., had tapped the services of Mapalo and his group
through their security company, the OMT Security
Services Inc., to fix a problem with their Filipino
dummies.
It was
not known whether Adaza is one of the owners or an
official of OMT. |
