De Villa Shows Who's The Boss In Malacañang

In an incident that seemed to have unmasked the real power behind the throne, President Arroyo's men had no qualms claiming that that they put Arroyo in Malacanang, that they are in charge, and that people had better get used to it.

(First of two parts)

BY CARLOS H. CONDE

Renato de Villa looked irritated as soon as he saw the two women inside his house in Ayala Heights, Quezon City. As the women were seated, de Villa cut to the chase. "I'm not going to be blackmailed by people like you!" he said, his voice unmistakably angry.

Teresita Ang-See and Carina Agarao were taken aback. "Who is blackmailing whom?" Agarao asked. "We are here out of concern for the President. We could have gone home and then just express our concern to the media but we decided to talk to you."

But de Villa was implacable. At one point, he told See and Agarao: "I told the President that should she withdraw the appointment of Mendoza, she better not sign any other document because her signature does not mean anything." Mendoza is Deputy Director General Leandro Mendoza, whom de Villa had picked as the new national police chief.

"I told the President..." These words lingered in See's mind for a long time. "The arrogance of power," See later told this writer, "was unmistakable. Those were his words and I couldn't forget them because I knew their significance." In an email to a friend, See said she felt she should document what transpired in that meeting because she was "frightened and depressed that (on) Day One after EDSA, President Gloria Macapaga-Arroyo got boxed in by the likes of de Villa and FVR (former President Fidel Ramos) and there seems to be no hope of (her) getting out of that box."

Anti-Crime Crusaders

See runs the Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran Inc., a nongovernment group that promotes and protects the interests of Chinese-Filipinos. See's major task is to monitor and coordinate the PNP's anti-kidnapping activities with the Chinese community, whose members have been the prime target of kidnap-for-ransom gangs. As such, See has worked closely with the police and knows the PNP's anti-crime operations rather well.

Agarao, on the other hand, is the president of Crusade Against Violence, a group of families of crime victims that has been lobbying for reforms in the police force.

Agarao's husband, lawyer Clarence, was shot dead in 1996. Mrs. Agarao is convinced that the mastermind of the murder has a close, personal relationship with Mendoza.

(At dawn of January 21, or a few hours after meeting de Villa, the alleged gunman who was already ready to talk about the murder of Atty. Agarao "escaped" from jail. He was never heard from since. To See, the "escape" - there were reports that the man was forced out of the jailhouse -- was precisely what they had feared would happen.)

As far as Mrs. Agarao was concerned, Mendoza's appointment rankled. Not only was she afraid that Mendoza's alleged relationship with the alleged mastermind would affect her case - witnesses to the crime have also backed out after Mendoza's appointment.

See said she learned of the plan to appoint Mendoza on January 20. She said she texted former trade secretary Narzalina Lim and Vicky Garchitorena, former Kompil II spokesperson and now Arroyo's chief of the Presidential Management Staff, of her and Agarao's concern, not so much for Mendoza's relationship with Atty. Agarao's alleged killers but because Mendoza is allegedly a compulsive gambler.

By early morning the next day, See confirmed that Mendoza was in. She called up Garchitorena. "I told Vicky, 'There are many names that are not tainted at all. Why put someone like him?'"

Meeting With The President

The day before, on January 20, Arroyo had been sworn in as the 14th president of the republic after hundreds of thousands of Filipinos trooped to EDSA and Mendiola to force Joseph Estrada to step down. Two hours before meeting de Villa, the two women - Teresita Ang-See and Carina Agarao - were talking with Arroyo at the One Burgundy Plaza along Katipunan Avenue, in Quezon City, shortly before midnight. They wanted to talk Arroyo out of Mendoza's appointment before any turnover could be done at Camp Crame.

With them were fellow anti-crime volunteer Alex Melchor, Betty Roxas-Chua, a friend of Arroyo's, and Paul Dominguez, Ramos's assistant for Mindanao who was to become Arroyo's adviser on regional development.

According to See, the President was silent most of the time. "It was Dominguez who did most of the talking." Dominguez, she said, kept on insisting that they "owe" Mendoza, that the appointment was nonnegotiable, that Mendoza was responsible for the PNP's withdrawal of support from Estrada.

Dominguez and Arroyo, See said, only softened when See asked them "what would happen if, tomorrow, somebody publishes a full-page ad detailing the gambling debts of Mendoza? Where would we be then?" Arroyo told them to see de Villa.

See and Agarao were puzzled. Why couldn't the President decide on the problem and chose instead to toss the matter over to de Villa? Notwithstanding that, See and Agarao, along with two Chinese businessmen, went straight to de Villa's residence in Ayala Heights. It was already past midnight.

Unknown to See and Agarao, somebody phoned de Villa of their audience with Arroyo as soon as the two women stepped out of One Burgundy Plaza. This explains why de Villa was already agitated when they arrived at his house.

Agarao and See, seeing that the secretary was adamant in his position favoring Mendoza, tried to reason with him, citing Mendoza's alleged shortcomings as a police officer, as well as his gambling activities.

But de Villa was unshakable. He took to task the two women for not opposing Lacson's appointment in 1998 when he too faced complaints (See replied she had no personal knowledge of these complaints) and that, maybe, See and Agarao were lobbying for somebody to be PNP chief. "Who is your candidate for PNP chief?" de Villa asked the already livid women.

See said they didn't see de Villa, who had been tasked by Arroyo to make security appointments, for any candidate. She explained that this controversy could hamper the Arroyo administration's early days. All four directorial staff under Lacson, See told de Villa, would be acceptable. To this de Villa retorted: "Why should our appointments be acceptable to you?"

De Villa: In Control

Days after the meeting, See was still disturbed. She said, "Dominguez and de Villa even told us that they put Arroyo in her position and that the President needs them to stabilize the country." De Villa, she said, "has no intention to play the little president. He is the president."

De Villa's behavior may have been caused by resentment toward the two whom he believed had meant to blackmail Malacanang into withdrawing the appointment of Mendoza. A former military general used to following the chain of command, it is reasonable to think that de Villa was offended by See and Agarao's temerity to go over his head and bring their case directly to the President.

To See, however, de Villa's demeanor indicated that he, not the President, was "in control." "Mrs. Arroyo was not in control. Otherwise, why couldn't she decide on Mendoza the same way she did on Abadia?" See said. The reason, she pointed out, is this: Mendoza "is a de Villa boy through and through."

Coup Rumor

One strategy to keep Mendoza as chief of a highly fractious police organization is to make him look indispensable in the eyes of the President. See believes that this is what the coup rumor was all about.

In her first nationwide TV address, Arroyo announced that she shall "crush" those who would attempt to destabilize the government. See said that this announcement surprised many because, at the time, there was no overt attempt by any group to destabilize the new government.

And Dominguez and Mendoza, among other Arroyo officials, behaved oddly regarding the coup rumor: instead of dismissing it, they even raised alarm over it. This is particularly uncharacteristic of Dominguez, who, as presidential assistant in Mindanao during the Ramos presidency, was extremely prudent in his pronouncements to the media, especially on matters regarding law and order.

But in that meeting at One Burgundy Plaza with Arroyo, See said Dominguez "kept on repeating that as we were talking, Estrada and his men were supposed to be planning a counter-coup on Polk St., where the ousted president was allegedly meeting with generals loyal to him."

See believes that Dominguez was "deliberately feeding on the President's fear of destabilization." See said this was apparently done to justify the appointments not only of Mendoza but also of Abadia as national security adviser.

Mendoza, meanwhile, "confirmed" the alleged coup plot to the press. Adding to the fire was AFP chief of staff Angelo Reyes, who vowed to, also to the press, to counter any such move.

"I have worked with Mrs. Arroyo while she was still vice-president. She was very good, very assertive, very bright and very in-charge. I was convinced that she would not allow herself to be used. But now I think they are deliberately scaring her, feeding on her sense of insecurity in this time of transition," See said.

Dire Consequences

A President who has no control over security matters could have dire consequences to the Chinese-Filipino community, See said.

Supporting Arroyo prior to the fall of Estrada "was an uphill struggle for the Chinese-Filipino community." It was very difficult, she said, to give up support on Estrada because of the fear that Arroyo would become merely the puppet of former president Ramos.

Chinese-Filipinos have a reason to dread Ramos and his clique in so far as their security is concerned. "For six years, Ramos and his men were not able to solve the kidnapping problem that terrorized the Chinese-Filipino community," See said. And it was not simply a failure to lick the problem - it was the seeming unwillingness of the Ramos administration to just do it, See said.

"The effects of kidnapping run very, very deep in the Chinese-Filipino community," she added.

Statistics gathered by the Citizens Action Against Crime and the Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order - two NGOs that work closely with Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran and the Crusade Against Violence - indicate that kidnappings rose from 107 incidents in 1993 (with a total paid ransom of P69 million) to 152 incidents in 1997 (with total paid ransom at P306 million). In 1998, the incidents dropped to 110 incidents and P119 million ransom paid. The next year, the kidnapping incidents dropped to 76 cases, with ransom paid at only P14 million.

"It is not difficult to understand why we are opposing Mendoza's appointment," See said. "Aside from gambling, it's the thought that the same people who failed to curb kidnapping are back in power."

(Conclusion: Arroyo's Political Hopping Takes Its Toll)

Their interpretation of what transpired at that meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the One Burgundy Plaza "is beyond my control." This was the reaction of Paul Dominguez, one of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's trusted men and her adviser for regional development, to the allegations of Teresita Ang-See and Carina Agarao.

In a phone interview Saturday, Dominguez said he never intended to impress on Teresita Ang-See and Carina Agarao that he was in charge at that meeting and not the President. "I happen to be with the President at the time and since she was attending to something else, she asked me to sit with them," Dominguez said.

The matter discussed at that meeting, he said, "was not my responsibility. I just happen to be there but I'm out of that loop."

Anyway, he said, Deputy Director General Leandro Mendoza is in an acting capacity as PNP chief and that the President had said in her TV address that the interior department should look into the complaints against the new PNP chief.

"They were still unwilling to accept the appointment but this whole matter is now the responsibility of DILG Secretary Joey Lina and I think he is the appropriate person to handle this," Dominguez said.

He confirmed that See and Agarao went to see Executive Secretary Renato de Villa on January 21. This writer tried to interview de Villa several times but was told by his aide, once by de Villa himself, that he couldn't talk because he was busy. De Villa also did not return this writer's calls.

Meanwhile, Dominguez laughed off See's allegation that he and Mendoza were deliberately trying to scare Arroyo with reports of destabilization attempts. "That's only her interpretation. Her interpretation is beyond my control. There's not much I can do about it. It is true that that very evening, there's a large meeting taking place on Polk St.," Dominguez said.

For his part, Mendoza insisted that if what See and Agarao are saying about him are true, "then how come there's not a single case filed against me in court?"

"The DILG has an ongoing inquiry into the concerns raised against me. But there has never been a formal complaint filed. I ask them, why is there no formal complaint?" Mendoza said Saturday night.

He said his record at the Ombudsman, which handles cases against government officials, "is very, very clean."

Mendoza said he has submitted a reply to DILG Secretary Joey Lina's inquiry, in which the PNP chief indicated that the complaints against him have no basis. "If See and Agarao's accusations against me are true, I would have been in jail a long time ago," Mendoza said.

The PNP chief also lambasted See and Agarao for campaigning against his appointment, saying that they have somebody in mind as PNP chief. "They wanted somebody there, their own man. This is also politics, you know," he said.

Mendoza said See and Agarao's complaints are mere "suspicion and innuendo." He said See had told him that the problem is that she does not know him and that she has heard things about him. "I want a chief PNP whom I can trust," Mendoza quoted See as saying.

The police general conceded that he has to develop trust and confidence in the PNP but quickly pointed out that all this trouble was created "only by two people" and to think, he said, that there are more than 20 anti-crime organizations that have expressed support for him. "These organizations have written me unsolicited manifestos of support," Mendoza said.

Mendoza admitted that de Villa is a good friend of his and that they had known each other for a long time. "He is my townmate but he is a very professional soldier. We go way, way back but he never tolerated any wrongdoing," he said.

When told that this relationship with de Villa does not sit well with some people, Mendoza replied: "Secretary de Villa probably saw that I could unite the PNP."

Mendoza, who was put on a "floating status" since 1998, said he wants to leave a legacy in the PNP. "When my time is up, I want people to remember the good things I have done," he said.

- Carlos H. Conde