Out of the blue, a detainee of Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig Metropolis surfaced, hurling accusations towards Vice President Sara Duterte in relation to confidential funds and Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs).
His identify is Ramil Lagunoy Madriaga, a Bureau of Jail Administration and Penology detainee, who subscribed to an affidavit on November 29, containing obscure allegations towards Duterte. He has been detained since 2023 over a kidnapping case pending with Manila Regional Trial Courtroom (RTC) Department 21.
By December 15, Madriaga submitted to the Workplace of the Ombudsman the stated affidavit.
“We submit this referral in deference to the Ombudsman’s authority to analyze and act upon acts or omissions of public officers and workers, and we respectfully request that the Affiant and this regulation agency be duly knowledgeable of any motion taken, in addition to any directives for additional compliance,” the letter of Madriaga’s authorized counsel to the Ombudsman learn.
In his affidavit, Madriaga stated he knew and had labored for the Vice President, who beforehand served as Davao Metropolis mayor. In line with him, he was additionally instructed by Duterte to kind a gaggle in 2019 to help “her deliberate 2022 presidential candidacy.”
“We had been capable of register ISIP Pilipinas on the Securities and Change Fee (SEC), with me because the Nationwide Convenor. Funding of ISIP was offered by Mayor Sara Duterte together with different help teams,” he stated.
In a press release on Monday, December 22, Duterte denied having any private relationship with Madriaga, including that she by no means gave him any “directions of any variety.”
“Mr. Madriaga has supplied no proof — no paperwork, no corroboration — solely accusations. Naked allegations, irrespective of how loudly repeated, quantity to nothing greater than noise,” the Vice President stated.
Who’s Madriaga?
Madriaga stated he graduated from the SSC Regulation in 1995, however didn’t go the Bar. He’s a member of the non secular sect Iglesia ni Cristo.
He claimed to have labored in authorities businesses just like the Nationwide Safety Council, Nationwide Bureau of Investigation, and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to call a number of.
Madriaga turned recognized amongst regulation enforcers because the particular person behind the “Madriaga Kidnap for Ransom Group.” On account of his kidnapping case, the Philippine Nationwide Police’s Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) arrested him in July 2023. The police stated he was the AKG’s fifth most needed particular person within the nation.
“The Madriaga Kidnap for Ransom Group stands as among the many most perilous felony syndicates in current police information and has been below thorough investigation for a number of months,” the PNP stated in 2023.
In 1997, Pasig Metropolis RTC Department 262 convicted Madriaga and two others of kidnapping for ransom in relation to a person named Vicente Uy. The Supreme Courtroom (SC), nevertheless, reversed the RTC’s resolution in 2003 and acquitted Madriaga and companions for the prosecution’s failure to show their guilt past cheap doubt.
The colonels
In Madriaga’s affidavit, he talked about two colonels: Colonel Dennis Nolasco (his scholar on the Presidential Safety Group) and Colonel Raymund Lachica (former head of the Vice Presidential Safety and Safety Group). Madriaga stated he had labored with these officers from July 2022 to April 2023.
Madriaga alleged that in December 2022, he and the 2 colonels had been on the Extremely in Pasig Metropolis. At round 3 pm of that day, two DepEd automobiles allegedly arrived containing 4 duffle luggage of cash. Every duffle bag contained round P33 million-P35 million. Lachica has already denied Madriaga’s allegations.
One bag was delivered to a mayor in Laguna, one other one to the parking compound of the Ombudsman, then the opposite one to a comedy bar in Timog, Quezon Metropolis “frequented by SSC (San Sebastian Faculty) Regulation alumni.”
“Once I arrived I noticed OVP Spokesperson Reynold Munsayac, former classmate of VP Sara. He signaled
for me to go upstairs and depart the cash on the workplace. I adopted his directions after which I left. He didn’t converse to me,” the affidavit learn. Munsayac has already denied this allegation, too, calling Madriaga a polluted supply.
Madriaga additionally tagged the identify of Ombudsman prosecutor Ryan Rey Quilala. He claimed Nolasco handed him a white Vios containing round P80 million. He left the automotive at a mall, then noticed the identical automotive being pushed by Quilala’s spouse, Rhea, another time.
Nolasco and Lachica’s identify first surfaced on the top of the Home investigation into the Vice President’s lots of of thousands and thousands of confidential funds allotted in 2022 and 2023 to the Workplace of the Vice President (OVP) and the Division of Training (DepEd), all amounting to P612.5 million.
On November 25, Sara Duterte’s particular disbursing officers revealed that the thousands and thousands of confidential funds had been managed by their safety personnel. Additionally they revealed that they disbursed the funds to the safety personnel of each businesses: Nolasco and Lachica.
The Home committee on good authorities and public accountability, in June, really useful the submitting of a plunder case towards VP Sara and different personnel, together with Nolasco and Lachica, over the confidential funds problem. The 2 officers are additionally among the many respondents within the plunder criticism just lately filed with the Ombudsman — nonetheless in relation to the confidential funds mess.
In the meantime, in October, the Armed Forces of the Philippines reassigned Lachica to the Philippine Military because of the Ombudsman criticism.
Mans Carpio and magnetic lifters
Madriaga additionally dragged the identify of the Vice President’s husband, lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio. He claimed that in a gathering with Carpio at Burgos Circle in Bonifacio World Metropolis in Taguig Metropolis, the lawyer allegedly instructed him and his crew to select up magnetic lifters on the Bureau of Customs.
“The unique plan, nevertheless, was aborted as a result of certainly one of President Duterte’s males working as an intelligence officer tipped us off that the cargo was a scorching merchandise and that somebody had their eye on the magnetic lifters containing tons of methamphetamine hydrochloride,” the previous intelligence officer claimed.
Madriaga stated he later knowledgeable Carpio that the cargo was being monitored, however he was informed by the lawyer to “do what is important.” He stated they facilitated the merchandise’s launch from Customs, and discovered that the merchandise was facilitated out of the BOC with the assistance of Customs fixer Mark Taguba.
We now have reached out to Carpio for a press release and we are going to replace this story as soon as he responds.
The previous intelligence officer’s supposed details about Carpio’s involvement within the magnetic lifters problem was slightly scant. This allegation was not new both as a result of the difficulty has been festering for years now.
Final August 2024, former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban accused Davao 1st District Consultant Paolo Duterte, Carpio, and former Rodrigo Duterte financial adviser Michael Yang of allegedly proudly owning the magnetic lifters that hid P11-billion price of unlawful medicine seized in Cavite again in 2018.
In one other listening to in November of the identical yr, Guban claimed that former Presidential Process Pressure on Media Safety chief Paul Gutierrez went to his holding room within the Senate in 2018, threatening him to not point out the names of Paolo Duterte, Carpio, and Yang through the higher chamber’s probe into the magnetic lifters problem.
In the meantime, Madriaga additionally claimed that ISIP Pilipinas and its parallel teams’ funding allegedly got here from POGOs and drug sellers. He claimed he was capable of determine these folks throughout his money pick-ups in inns in Quezon Metropolis and Taguig Metropolis.
However just like his allegations pertaining to the magnetic lifters, Madriaga’s POGO-related allegations additionally lacked particular particulars. Though it was former president Duterte who enabled POGO operations within the nation which led to heinous crimes like trafficking, a direct hyperlink has but to be established between the previous president and POGOs.
The closest connection thus far is by way of Hongjiang Yang, Michael Yang’s brother, who has ties to Hong Sheng Gaming Company, a Tarlac-based POGO. – Rappler.com
