Arroyo doubted PSG

**explorer** · October 30th, 2005 03:52 AM

Arroyo doubted PSG--report
Stolen US file says Palace guards were disarmed

First posted 00:50am (Mla time) Oct 30, 2005
By Norman Bordadora
Inquirer News Service

AT the height of the scandal in July, President Macapagal-Arroyo was apparently so concerned about her personal safety that she ordered the presidential guards to leave their weapons in their armories so that no one of dubious loyalty could approach her with a gun.

This was revealed in a US Embassy report sent to Washington and believed to be part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation files allegedly pilfered by FBI Fil-Am intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo.

Yesterday, Malacañang flatly denied the allegations contained in the US Embassy report. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye called it “fiction.”

The report was dated Aug. 8, 2005, which coincided with the time Ms Arroyo was battling a dangerous political crisis provoked by her alleged wiretapped conversations with Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano dealing with rigging the results of the 2004 presidential election.

A few weeks before the date reflected on the report, 10 senior administration officials—who became known as the “Hyatt 10”—resigned their posts and a shadowy group of young Armed Forces officials called YOU (Young Officers Union) declared its vow to oust her from office.

It was also the time that reports cropped up saying that Ms Arroyo was checking on the loyalty of officers and members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

A copy of the US Embassy report obtained by the Inquirer said the source of the embassy information was an unnamed “Philippine military intelligence official with direct access to the information.”

“The source’s personal pursuits and military connections provide daily access to host country’s military elite,” it said.

The report said that “units assigned to security detail at Malacañang were ordered to return arms to home base armories.”

“Source claimed that this action was ordered by Arroyo approximately two weeks ago and was issued to ensure no one of suspect allegiance would be able to approach Arroyo while carrying arms,” it added.

Presidential Security Group chief Brig. Gen. Delfin Bangit denied the report, saying it was PSG policy for its men to carry firearms with them and this policy had not changed.

The embassy report also spoke of Garcillano’s supposed whereabouts.

Garcillano’s ‘hiding place’

“Possibly related to the embattled Philippine President’s attempts to retain her position, Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano is hidden in a home owned by the family of President Arroyo in Iligan,” the report said.

The embassy information appeared to jar with what the Philippine government was to say later in the month, specifically on Aug. 18, that Garcillano had flown to Singapore a month earlier, specifically on July 14, and that he left Singapore a day later for an unknown destination.

He was later reported to have gone to Europe.

To this day, his whereabouts are unknown.

‘A bum steer’

A Malacañang official, asking not to be identified, dismissed as “koryente” (a bum steer) the claim that Ms Arroyo’s ancestral home had been used as a safehouse for Garcillano.

The embassy report carried a letterhead that appeared to be a US government seal and had the words “Executive Secretariat” and “Operations Center.”

The document said that the “reporting officer” at the embassy and the unidentified Filipino military source “had meetings and meet on a regular basis.”

Same source

“Source is available for recontact,” the two-page report said.

The report was given to the Inquirer by the same source of the so-called FBI files that were supposedly passed on to Filipino opposition politicians and became the subject of an Inquirer series of reports last month.

Like some of the other papers, the Aug. 8 report did not contain the name of the embassy official who supposedly prepared it.

Aragoncillo and former Philippine police officer Michael Ray Aquino, to whom he also reportedly gave the documents, have been arrested in the United States on charges of spying.

**IceColdBeer** · October 30th, 2005 02:28 PM

Napapraning na si Madam!
Disappearing act by Garcillano followed by Joc Joc Bolante and Cito Lorenzo

**Altis6453** · October 30th, 2005 02:40 PM

Paranoia? But, seriously, I highly doubt that. The PSG are loyal enough to even defend ERAP if in the event he would be lynched by the mob of EDSA Dos. A friend of mine who happens to be with the PSG says that they're protecting the Office of the President...not the personality behind it.

**oldblue** · October 30th, 2005 03:03 PM

sino nag-disarm sa psg, psg din? o cia? hehehe

**chua_riwap** · October 30th, 2005 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by Altis6453

Paranoia? But, seriously, I highly doubt that. The PSG are loyal enough to even defend ERAP if in the event he would be lynched by the mob of EDSA Dos.

P're, kahit anong loyalty ang ibuhos ng PSG kay GMA kung si GMA mismo , eh duda at walang tiwala sa mga guwardiya niya, may magagawa ba silla?

Eh, mukhang sa ngayon, si GMA, masyado nang paranoid sa mga nakapaligid sa kaniya. Wala na siyang pinagkakatiwalaan pa, except yung mga die-hards niyang 3 Stoogees na si Ermita, Gonzales, at Bunye.

**baiskee** · October 30th, 2005 05:52 PM

don't forget mike defensor.

**yebo** · October 30th, 2005 06:27 PM

kita ko kagabi sa news si tabatchoy mike arroyo, kala ko ba naka-exile yun?

as for gma not trusting the psg, e sarili nga nyang anino takot siya e! yan napapala ng magnanakaw at sinungaling, di na makatulog sa dami ng sariling multo ehehehehehe!

**Isuzoom** · October 30th, 2005 08:31 PM

Hay lintek na mga politkong ito!

**chua_riwap** · October 30th, 2005 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by yebo

As for gma not trusting the psg, e sarili nga nyang anino takot siya e! yan napapala ng magnanakaw at sinungaling, di na makatulog sa dami ng sariling multo ehehehehehe!