PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — THE Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group yesterday filed criminal charges against lawyer Homobono N. Adaza and five others in connection with an alleged plot to topple the Arroyo administration.
Charged with proposal to commit coup d‘etat were Adaza, Army Lt. Col. Oscar P. Mapalo, retired Army Colonel Ernie A. Amboy, retired Marine Col. Cesar A. de la Pena, retired Army Col. Edgardo Tapia and dismissed Supt. Rafael A. Cardeno.
Except for Tapia, all of the accused were arrested by the CIDG headed by Chief Supt Raul L. Castaneda Wednesday afternoon.
Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Y. Velasco ordered the detention of the accused police and military personnel at the maximum-security PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame. However, he granted Adaza’s request that he be confined at the PNP General Hospital for health reasons.
Velasco also recommended the filing of a case for obstruction of justice and harboring a fugitive against Adaza, Mapalo, Amboy, de la Pena and Tapia for hiding Cardeno, who is wanted for the killing of Young Officers Union spokesman Baron Cervantes in 2001.
Cardeno was also charged with using a fictitious name for misrepresenting himself as Randy Linares Marvella when he was arrested.
The five were arrested in a sting operation Wednesday in Pasig City.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo V. Puno said that lawyer Raymond Parsifal A. Fortun claimed that Adaza’s group attempted to raise money to fund a fresh coup.
Fortun submitted a written complaint together with the general manager of Buenavista Island Resort identified as Joanne Laurilla.
“OMT Security Services, Inc., Adaza’s group, offered to provide security services for Laurila’s resort sometime in May this year and in a series of meetings, Adaza’s group proposed before Atty. Fortun that his Japanese client/investors raise $4 million or P160 million ‘in order to finance a coup d ‘etat to be organized by OMT’s ‘friends’ in the military,” Puno said.
Adaza however said Fortun is “full of lies.” “He’s a congenital liar and I know that these charges will not stand in court. I have not been a lawyer for many years for nothing,” Adaza said before he was taken to the police hospital.
In his affidavit, Fortun said he had several meetings with the accused who offered his Japanese clients led by one Motonori Sakuma their help in regaining management control of Buenavista Island and the Gold Barrel Social Club, Inc. located in Buenavista, Marinduque.
He said they also discussed a plan wherein the Japanese investors were asked to raise $4 million or about P160 million to finance a coup d ‘etat to be organized by OMT’s ‘friends’ in the military. Fortun said Adaza eventually told him that they want $10 million instead from the Japanese investors.
Fortun said, Mapalo asked for a meeting in a coffee shop in Glorietta 4, Makati City where they were joined by Adaza and Tapia.
“In this meeting, Atty. Adaza told me that OMT was going to concentrate on the ‘big project,’ i.e., the coup d ‘etat. Adaza however told me that the other group was with the presence of high-powered personalities, and that politics would again rule if this other group would conduct the overthrow ahead of the OMT Group.”
The lawyer said Sakuma decided not to finance the planned coup d ‘etat.