Michael Ray Aquino's Lawyer Issues Clarifications

From Sen. Ping Lacson's website:

On behalf of Michael Ray Aquino's family and relatives here in New York/New Jersey area, we wish to clarify media reports surrounding his arrest:

1. Michael was arrested by FBI agents last September 10, 2005, Saturday morning, in front of his Queens (New York) residence. He later found out that the principal defendant, Leandro Aragoncillo, was also arrested earlier in the day at the latter's New Jersey residence.



2. On September 12, 2005, Michael and Mr. Aragoncillo were brought before Judge Patty Shwartz of the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, for their initial hearing. The Court asked them if they understood the charges filed against them. Mr. Aragoncillo's public defender argued for his release pending trial, but the Judge denied his request. Michael's detention hearing was scheduled for September 21, 2005, as the prosecution had ten days under the law to detain him, as he was neither a US citizen nor a permanent resident. Michael's wife and close relatives attended the initial hearing.



3. There were two charges filed against Michael: (a) conspiracy to defraud the United States by impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the government's lawful function in protecting classified information against unauthorized disclosure, and; (b) acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government or foreign official without prior notification to the Attorney General.



4. Michael vehemently denies having acted as an agent of a foreign government or foreign official during his stay in the United States. He was never employed by any Philippine official, past or present, to gather classified information in the United States. He takes exception to the insinuation that he received money for the communications he was sending to friends, associates, and relatives back in the Philippines that concern the Philippines. He denies his interrogators' claim that he recruited Mr. Aragoncillo to gather classified information for the Philippine government or any of its officials. In fact, the criminal complaint supports the reverse, that it was actually Mr. Aragoncillo who requested Michael to introduce the former to a Philippine public official. Michael states that there was nothing wrong in his introducing Mr. Aragoncillo to the Philippine public official, as he has often been requested to do so by people from all walks of life.



5. Being unemployed, Michael had lots of time to spare, and most of those times were spent in front of the computer. He exchanged e-mails to lots of people, including people in the Philippine government, his mistahs from the academy, and even classmates from his elementary and high school days. Among the e-mails he received were documents from Mr. Aragoncillo which the prosecution is now characterizing as classified information. Michael wants to point out that, contrary to newspaper reports, he did not transmit any document which the prosecution alleges to be classified, to any Philippine official, past or present. The criminal complaint alleges that all the transmissions of the questioned documents came from Mr. Aragoncillo. The documents Michael received from Mr. Aragoncillo were sent directly to some Philippine officials, and he was just copy-furnished the same. For Michael, the contents were not secret or confidential information as he had previously read all of those reports in Philippine-based media. In fact, he had to annotate or make comments on some of the documents he received, as those were not factually correct. Furthermore, Michael claims that he had no way of knowing that the documents being e-mailed to him by Mr. Aragoncillo were classified, as there was no indication at all in the contents of the documents, nor in the title of the e-mail messages that the attached documents he was receiving were classified.



6. Michael did not download any document from any FBI computer. Philippine-based media incorrectly report that he downloaded the alleged classified documents from the FBI and he directly transmitted those to the three unnamed Philippine officials. The criminal complaint alleges that it was Mr. Aragoncillo who allegedly transmitted the alleged classified information to Philippine officials. Not Michael.



7. Michael wants to emphasize that while the criminal complaint alleges that Mr. Aragoncillo continued to transmit allegedly classified information to Philippine officials up to August 26, 2005, he was never a recipient of any of those allegedly classified information after April 06, 2005. The documents he received until April 06, 2005 were not news to him, as those were stale reports and opinions about the Philippines and some of its leaders, which most Filipinos have heard or read anyway in the Philippine media.



8. Some Philippine newspapers continue to propagate the lie that Michael is a wanted person in the Philippines. Michael's family wishes to correct that report. There is no pending criminal case filed against Michael before any Philippine court as far as the family knows. This is why talks about Michael being extradited to the Philippines are but that - empty talk- as he cannot be extradited because there are no pending warrants of arrest issued against him by any Philippine court.



9. Michael's family respectfully requests everybody not to prejudge the situation. Catch words have been used - that Michael had spied on the US, and that there was conspiracy to spy. But Michael did not have access to US records, except those copy-furnished him. The information was not about the US, but instead, about reports by the US concerning some Filipino politicians and the Philippine political situation. So, who is spying on whom?

FELIX Q. VINLUAN, Esq.
Attorney & Counselor at Law
Aquino family's immigration counsel and spokesman
224 West 35th Street, Suite 603, New York, New York 10001

Interesting.