NEWARK, New Jersey - Michael Ray Aquino, 41, a former senior officer of the Philippine National Police, was sentenced July 17 by US District Court Judge William Walls here to 76 months in a US prison for passing classified nformation to opposition politicians in the Philippines as part of a plot to overthrow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The next day, Aquino’s co-conspirator, former FBI analyst Leandro Aragoncillo, was also sentenced by Judge Walls to 10 years in jail. Both Aquino and Aragoncillo pleaded guilty last year of receiving and passing on secret US documents to Philippine officials. Both apologized in open court for their misdeeds, adding that they never had any intention of harming the United States.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” Aquino told Judge Walls during a three-hour hearing here. “I never had the intention to harm the United States. I love this country." On July 18, Aragoncillo, 48, a naturalized US citizen born in the Philippines also told Judge Walls: “I never intended to cause harm or injury to the United States.” Aragoncillo worked as a military aide to vice presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney starting in the late 1990s before joining the FBI. Like Aquino he apologized in court for his actions and said he was just trying to help bring Filipinos out of poverty.

In Manila, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it would build a case, possibly for espionage and sedition, against the Filipino co-conspirators of Aquino. Among the political leaders that Aquino allegedly passed on the secret US information are former President Joseph Estrada, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and former House Speaker A. Fuentebella. They have acknowledged receiving documents from Aquino and Aragoncillo.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales said he has requested US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to assist Philippine prosecutors in compiling evidence against those who received the secret files. Malaca__ang said that the conviction of Aquino should serve as a warning to opposition leaders seeking to destabilize the Arroyo administration.

Aquino’s lawyer Mark Berman in an email to the Manila Mail said he was pleased the court rejected the government’s request for the 10-year maximum sentence but added “we will appeal the court’s decision not to utilize a more appropriate and more lenient sentencing guideline." Aquino was a deputy director of the Philippine National Police and also a senior superintendent of the now disbanded Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force before he fled to the US in July 2001 to escape arrest on murder charges.

He left with his wife and son after charges were filed against him in connection with the murder of public relations practitioner Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November of 2000. The case against him is pending in Manila.
Aquino studied nursing in New York and passed the board examinations in 2004.

Aragoncillo’s cover was blown when he tried to use his influence to intervene before US immigration officials for Aquino, who was arrested for overstaying his visa. Judge Walls said he believed that Aragoncillo did not mean to hurt the United States. But he said, “There’s no doubt you did betray a position of trust that very few people are privileged to occupy.”

Aragoncillo admitted taking and transferring classified information to senior political and government officials of the Philippines in an attempt to destabilize and overthrow that country’s government, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Kenneth L. Wainstein and U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said. Judge Walls sentenced Aragoncillo to serve 10 years in prison and a fine of $40,000 for his guilty pleas to espionage charges. The Department of Justice said in a press release there is no parole in the federal system that Aragoncillo can be expected to serve nearly the entire sentence except for potential good-inmate credits. “Those charged with protecting the nation have a special responsibility to maintain their oath of loyalty to the United States ," said Wainstein. “As a former U.S. Marine and FBI analyst, Aragoncillo betrayed that oath, violated our espionage laws, and now must suffer the consequences of his actions.” “Aragoncillo is guilty of grave betrayals,” said U.S. Attorney Christie. “He betrayed his Marine uniform, his adopted country and the trust bestowed on him as an FBI analyst."

“The sentencing of Leandro Arangoncillo brings to a close a harmful and disgraceful story of how a formerly trustworthy FBI employee and U.S. Marine can turn into an enemy of the American people and the American way of life," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun.
“Aragoncillo and his cohort, Michael Ray Aquino, have come full circle in the justice system, and for them the circle ends at a federal penitentiary” At his plea hearing last year, 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. He also admitted traveling to the Philippines in January 2001 to meet his co-conspirators, including during a visit to the Malacanang Palace, the official residence of the president of the Philippines.
Aragoncillo admitted that some of the classified information he removed from of the Office of the Vice President between approximately October 2000 and February 2002 included information marked Top Secret that related to terrorist threats to United States government interests in the Philippines.
Aragoncillo, until recently a resident of Woodbury , N.J. admitted that his espionage activity continued during his time as an FBI analyst. Aragoncillo and Michael Ray Aquino, a former Philippines National Police official, were arrested on Sept. 10, 2005. Aquino was among those to whom Aragoncillo passed classified information.

Aragoncillo pleaded guilty to four counts of an Indictment: Conspiracy to Transmit National Defense Information; Transmission of National Defense Information; Unlawful Retention of National Defense Information; and Unlawful Use of a Government Computer.

Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI Newark Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun, for their investigation of the espionage case. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karl H. Buch and Michael Buchanan, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division, and Clifford I. Rones, Senior Trial Attorney, Counterespionage Section, U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl H. Buch told reporter Joseph G. Lariosa in Chicago that Aragoncillo was supposed to get more prison time but his sentence was mitigated “by his full cooperation to the government.

Lariosa continued:
Buch said Aragoncillo stole more than 700 documents over a five-year period. Most were about the U.S. government’s position on the political situation in the Philippines. Prosecutors also filed documents during sentencing a photograph of Aragoncillo in his Marine uniform shaking President Estrada’s hand during a state visit to the White House on July 26, 2000 while President Bill Clinton was looking on.
Documents also included a recommendation from Vice President Gore, saying, “Aragoncillo’s thorough and insightful work has always ensured that I am well prepared for my meetings with foreign leaders and with other senior American officials."

Prosecutors said Aragoncillo had 10 co-conspirators and four unindicted co-conspirators among them were identified in court filings as Estrada, former Philippine House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella and Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

When asked about the deposition executed by Lacson, Buch said, Senator Lacson was lying. “It means he is not welcome in the United States," Buch explained. “Aragoncillo is guilty of grave betrayals,’ said U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie. “He betrayed his Marine uniform, his adopted country and the trust bestowed on him as an FBI analyst.’