Historic but dangerous times

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OCTOBER is Filipino American History Month, a time to celebrate the noted accomplishments of Filipinos in America. Less than two months ago, Filipino American Cristeta Comerford joined this distinguished list by becoming the first female (and first minority) chef in the White House.

This past week, a distinguished US Marine, a Filipino American named Leandro Aragoncillo, also joined the list by becoming the first known individual to ever steal classified materials from the White House when he was an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.

In the 417 years since Filipinos ("Luzon indios") first landed in Morro Bay, California on October 17, 1587, Filipinos have gone from a high of "Hail to the Chef" to a low of "Hail to the Thief."

Not since the CNN report on Philippine children in prisons has CNN devoted as much coverage to a Filipino issue as this one received. Unlike the Philippine children in prison, this story was not limited to CNN. It was carried 24 hours a day on all the network and cable news and extensively in the print media as well.

Not since Andrew Cunanan, the killer of Gianni Versace, have the words "Filipino American " and "criminal" and "crime" been used in the same sentence on the air as frequently as they were employed last week in the Arancillo story.

Commentators on the subject have said, as Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) did, that "Filipino Americans are still welcome to work in the federal government as long as they don't steal and pass on classified documents." We are now, as a people, a security risk.

It was bad enough when Pres. Bush signed the Aviation Transportation Security Act (ASTA) on November 21, 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, requiring that all airport screeners be US citizens causing almost 2,000 Filipino immigrants to lose their jobs. Now, even if Filipinos naturalize and become US citizens, they may still not get top secret classification because they may be tainted by Aragoncillo.

I can just hear them now. "You better watch out for those people. You can trust them to cook your food, take care of your kids and old folks, nurse you to health but keep your documents away from them."

I wonder how many Filipino Americans will lose the opportunity to be hired by or promoted within the US intelligence services as a result of l'affair Aragoncillo. It will probably take at least 10 or 20 years to properly gauge the damage this case will have on Filipino Americans.

Unlike the Comerford appointment, the news of which came and went in one week, the Aragoncillo espionage case has legs and will be with us for a while constantly reminding the American mainstream of how untrustworthy certain Filipino Americans can be.

Aragoncillo is fully cooperating with the federal authorities. He will disclose how he was solicited by Michael Ray Aquino, the former Philippine police superintendent and close aide of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, in February of 2005 to download at least 110 classified and "secret" documents from FBI computers and email them to Aquino who then passed them on Lacson, former President Joseph Estrada and Rep. Roilo Golez.

More significantly, he will allow the FBI to access his bank records to trace the source of the money he received from Aquino in exchange for the purloined filed.

While admitting that he received the information from Aquino, Senator Lacson downplayed the value of the documents by claiming that they were similar to what anyone can read in the Manila press.

Although I am not his lawyer (far from it), I can advise him that there are two problems with his defense. One is that when you ask a thief to rob a house and all he gets you is toilet paper, the crimes of burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary are complete. The toilet paper defense doesn't work.

Secondly, even if everything US Charge D'Affairs Joseph Mussomeli wrote in his memo about GMA's sinking popularity, the rising popularity of Estrada, and the restiveness of the Philippine military are all daily fare in the Philippine media, the fact that they are being assessed by the US intelligence services and the US government is the news.

The downloading of the Mussomeli memo and its leakage to Lacson and Estrada is what triggered the escalating destabilization moves against the Arroyo government in April of 2005.

Lacson had the Garci tapes at least since May of 2004 after it was obtained by his man, Technical Sergeant Vidal Doble, a wiretap expert in Lacson's Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF). The original of the tapes were then handed over by Doble to Samuel Ong, a former deputy chief of the National Bureau of Investigation, who openly campaigned for Lacson in the 2004 presidential elections.

Lacson waited for the proper time to release the tapes. And it was the secret Mussomeli memo that Aragoncillo downloaded and sent to Aquino who then transmitted it to Lacson this past April that caused Lacson to conclude that the time was right.

The timeline fits. After serving in Marcos' Military Intelligence Service Group (MISG) for 18 years, and having been sent to US military training schools during that period, Lacson was aware of US protocols. As long as the US strongly supported President Arroyo, there is no way she can be toppled from power.

But if the US wavers in that support, then a window is opened. The Mussomeli memo showed Lacson and Estrada that the US was starting to waver in its support for GMA. The time was ripe. The destabilization of the Arroyo government could now begin in earnest. While the US is still gathering its information before Lacson and Estrada can be indicted in the US and then extradited here, this is a dangerous period in the Philippines.

The only way that Lacson and Estrada can avoid their incarceration in the US is if they expedite and accelerate all the current destabilization moves now. There may be a coup attempt shortly supported by Lacson and Estrada. With them as part of the ruling junta, they cannot be extradited to the US.

These are dangerous times still.

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