NEW JERSEY
– Leandro Aragoncillo, a Filipino American who used to work at the office of
Vice President Dick Cheney, has confessed to passing “Top Secret” information
to Philippine political leaders since 2001 to help an attempt to overthrow the
government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Federal Bureau of Investigation analyst, admitted that he passed on these
secret documents to former top officials in the Philippines after President
The 47-year-old former Marine and later
Joseph Estrada was overthrown in a People Power revolt.
These officials, although not mentioned
by name in the case, are Estrada, who is on trial on plunder charges, Sen.
Panfilo Lacson and former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella. They were
identified as among the Filipino recipients of these secret documents. All of
them denied the charge.
In Manila,
the department of justice reacted by saying Estrada and the rest may be charged
with treason for conspiring to overthrow the government. Estrada countered by
saying he will file the same charges against Arroyo who conspired to overthrow
him in 2001. Malacanang officials said the confession gives credence to the
government’s claim of the opposition’s plot.
Estrada, on May 8, said Aragoncillo
informed him of the plot by then Vice President Arroyo to oust him but that he
ignored this information. (See story nside.)
Aragoncillo, who was born in the Philippines, pleaded guilty to four counts in an
indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Newark, New Jersey.
One charged him with conspiracy to transmit national defence information, the
second with transmitting national defense information. The third charge was
unlawful retention of national defense information and the fourth unlawful use
of a government computer.
He faces a maximum punishment of life
imprisonment on the first two counts. For the other two charges there is a
maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Had he not pleaded guilty, Aragoncillo
could have faced the death penalty if he did not plead guilty.
A Justice Department statement said
Aragoncillo got the secrets while working in the office of Vice President Dick
Cheney and his predecessor Al Gore. He was an FBI intelligence analyst at Fort Monmouth, New
Jersey when arrested on September 10, 2005 along with
a former Philippine police official, Michael Ray Aquino.
Aquino is under detention in New Jersey for his role
in the espionage case.
Aragoncillo admitted that his espionage
activity continued during his time as an FBI analyst, the statement said. The
information released by the court did not mention the officials in the Philippines by
name. They were only identified as “senior political and government officials.”
Aragoncillo admitted passing documents
from White House briefing books, situation reports and other top-secret
documents from the F.B.I. computer that contained information like the names of confidential
informants in the Philippines.
Other documents provided to unnamed opponents
of President Arroyo (Estrada and others) were described by Aragoncillo as a
“blueprint” of how to stage a military coup that the United States government might
support.
“His betrayal is profound and a
disservice to his country and all the men and women in military and security
positions," said Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney who
prosecuted the case. Chester Keller, the federal public defender representing
Mr. Aragoncillo, said his client never intended to harm the American people and
sought only to help the Philippine people.
The statement said Aragoncillo first met
the senior “executive branch” official at the Malacanang Palace
on January 12, 2001 — eight days before Estrada was ousted. He was said to have
collected classified reports from the White House and given them to the same
official in June 2001, after Arroyo had taken power.
“Aragoncillo admitted that he regularly
transferred to his Philippine contacts national security documents classified
as ‘Secret’, and that the information could be used to the injury of the United
States or to the advantage of a foreign nation,” the statement said.
The former marine said that in telephone
and email messages “with Senator No. 1, he advised that the information he was
transferring would be useful in assisting Senator No. 1 and his associates in
their attempts to destabilize and overthrow the president and government of the
Philippines,”
said the statement.
He was quoted as saying that in one
conversation, Aragoncillo “told Senator No. 1 that the documents were like a
‘blueprint’ on how to engineer a coup.”
The information, leaked between October
2000 and February 2002, included information marked “Top Secret” that related
to terrorist threats to US interests in the Philippines, the statement said.
US Attorney Christopher Christie of New Jersey district
said: “His betrayal is profound and a disservice to his country.”
Aquino, a former Philippines
police official, was also detained last September. He was among those to whom
Aragoncillo is alleged to have passed classified information. Aquino’s
colleage, Cesar Mancao, is out on bail after he was arrested in Florida. He might be
cited as witness in the case against Aquino.
The Philippine government said it might
seek the extradition of the two to face murder charges for their alleged
involvement in the killing of PR man Bubby Dacer and his driver in 2000 in Cavite.
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