Joseph Estrada’s PSG chief tagged in attempt to bribe Luy
MANILA, Philippines–The head of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) of former President Joseph Estrada, now the Manila mayor, acted as Janet Lim-Napoles’ emissary in a failed attempt to negotiate with Benhur Luy’s camp to drop the serious illegal detention case against her before she wrote President Aquino, documents obtained by the Inquirer showed.
Retired Gen. Rodolfo Diaz arranged a second meeting between Napoles’ lawyer, Alfredo Villamor, and Luy’s then counsel, Levito Baligod, at the Sulu Hotel on March 25, 2013, according to a letter Baligod wrote to the National Bureau of Investigation dated April, 25, 2013.
Baligod said that during the meeting, Villamor tried to persuade him to ask Luy to drop his case against Napoles and her brother, Reynald Lim, in exchange for P5 million.
“We met at the Sulu Hotel in Quezon City at about 6 p.m. and the meeting immediately ended when there appeared to be a miscommunication between [Attorney] Villamor and [General] Diaz. Apparently, the latter assured Villamor that he could convince me of whatever proposal Villamor may put on the table, which was a reiteration of the offer he made earlier during our first meeting,” the letter said.
Baligod told the Inquirer that he mentioned Diaz in his letter to fully narrate the events that surrounded his eventual meeting with Villamor and Napoles.
“Diaz only told me to fix whatever there is to fix with Villamor and left me to talk to Napoles’ lawyer,” Baligod said. He also explained that he had earlier contacted Diaz to ask for information about another former Navy official who was supposedly “the protector of Napoles based on the accounts of Luy’s family.”
Baligod’s letter to the NBI was a response to the allegations of extortion by Napoles in her letter to President Aquino on April 17, 2013. In that letter, Napoles accused Baligod and Diaz of “extortion of P38 million in exchange for dropping the false charges and bad media publicity.”
The NBI, acting on a directive by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima dated April 18, 2013, asked Baligod to explain his side on the extortion accusations of Napoles.
In the same letter to the NBI, Baligod also said that on March 23, a day after Luy was rescued by the NBI from the Pacific Towers condominium unit of Napoles, Villamor offered him P5 million to convince his client to drop the case against Napoles and her brother.
Napoles is now detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna province; her brother, who has a P5-million reward offered by President Aquino for his arrest, remains at large.
“Maybe Villamor found out that I knew Diaz and talked to him to act as a bridge for a meeting,” Baligod explained.
In his letter to the NBI, Baligod said that to show how well connected Napoles was, he said he received a call on March 27, 2013, from a high-ranking officer of his fraternity—the Freemasonry—asking him to meet Napoles in Makati Shangri-La later that evening.
“He wanted me to meet his friend, with a sense of urgency and without divulging the identity at my convenience,” Baligod said. Baligod declined to name the fraternity brother.
He added that Napoles asked for his help to convince Luy to drop the illegal detention case. “As she was very persistent on how I could help her, with levity I said the only solution was if for some reason the whole family will decide to emigrate.”
“To which she said OK, I will shoulder everything, cross my heart and I am committing this in front of my close friend,” he said, referring to the unnamed fraternity brother.
Napoles, in her letter to Aquino, also accused Baligod of launching a media campaign against her. She told the President that Baligod was demanding P250 million to P300 million from her and Canadian visas for the Luy family. She said the Luy family also wanted pocket money of $1.5 million and a pharmaceutical business with a capitalization of P30 million for the youngest sister of Luy who would remain in the country.
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