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(L-R) Hongjiang Yang with his brothers Tony Yang and Michael Yang. Photo from Representative Dan Fernandez(L-R) Hongjiang Yang with his brothers Tony Yang and Michael Yang. Photo from Representative Dan Fernandez
Who is Ramil Madriaga and what’s behind his accusations vs Sara Duterte?
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Out of the blue, a detainee of Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City surfaced, hurling accusations against Vice President Sara Duterte in relation to confidential funds and Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs).
His name is Ramil Lagunoy Madriaga, a Bureau of Jail Management and Penology detainee, who subscribed to an affidavit on November 29, containing vague allegations against Duterte. He has been detained since 2023 over a kidnapping case pending with Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 21.
By December 15, Madriaga submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman the said affidavit.
“We submit this referral in deference to the Ombudsman’s authority to investigate and act upon acts or omissions of public officers and employees, and we respectfully request that the Affiant and this law firm be duly informed of any action taken, as well as any directives for further compliance,” the letter of Madriaga’s legal counsel to the Ombudsman read.
In his affidavit, Madriaga said he knew and had worked for the Vice President, who previously served as Davao City mayor. According to him, he was also instructed by Duterte to form a group in 2019 to support “her planned 2022 presidential candidacy.”
“We were able to register ISIP Pilipinas at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with me as the National Convenor. Funding of ISIP was provided by Mayor Sara Duterte along with other support groups,” he said.
In a statement on Monday, December 22, Duterte denied having any personal relationship with Madriaga, adding that she never gave him any “instructions of any kind.”
“Mr. Madriaga has offered no proof — no documents, no corroboration — only accusations. Bare allegations, no matter how loudly repeated, amount to nothing more than noise,” the Vice President said.
Who is Madriaga?
Madriaga said he graduated from the SSC Law in 1995, but failed to pass the Bar. He is a member of the religious sect Iglesia ni Cristo.
He claimed to have worked in government agencies like the National Security Council, National Bureau of Investigation, and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to name a few.
Madriaga became known among law enforcers as the person behind the “Madriaga Kidnap for Ransom Group.” Due to his kidnapping case, the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) arrested him in July 2023. The police said he was the AKG’s 5th most wanted person in the country.
“The Madriaga Kidnap for Ransom Group stands as among the most perilous criminal syndicates in recent police records and has been under thorough investigation for several months,” the PNP said in 2023.
In 1997, Pasig City RTC Branch 262 convicted Madriaga and two others of kidnapping for ransom in relation to a man named Vicente Uy. The Supreme Court (SC), however, reversed the RTC’s decision in 2003 and acquitted Madriaga and companions for the prosecution’s failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The colonels
In Madriaga’s affidavit, he mentioned two colonels: Colonel Dennis Nolasco (his student at the Presidential Security Group) and Colonel Raymund Lachica (former head of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group). Madriaga said he had worked with these officers from July 2022 to April 2023.
Madriaga alleged that in December 2022, he and the two colonels were at the Ultra in Pasig City. At around 3 pm of that day, two DepEd vehicles allegedly arrived containing four duffle bags of money. Each duffle bag contained around P33 million-P35 million. Lachica has already denied Madriaga’s allegations.
One bag was delivered to a mayor in Laguna, another one to the parking compound of the Ombudsman, then the other one to a comedy bar in Timog, Quezon City “frequented by SSC (San Sebastian College) Law alumni.”
“When I arrived I saw OVP Spokesperson Reynold Munsayac, former classmate of VP Sara. He signaled
for me to go upstairs and leave the money at the office. I followed his instructions and then I left. He did not speak to me,” the affidavit read. Munsayac has already denied this allegation, too, calling Madriaga a polluted source.
Madriaga also tagged the name of Ombudsman prosecutor Ryan Rey Quilala. He claimed Nolasco handed him a white Vios containing around P80 million. He left the car at a mall, then saw the same car being driven by Quilala’s wife, Rhea, some other time.
Nolasco and Lachica’s name first surfaced at the height of the House investigation into the Vice President’s hundreds of millions of confidential funds allotted in 2022 and 2023 to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), all amounting to P612.5 million.
On November 25, Sara Duterte’s special disbursing officers revealed that the millions of confidential funds were managed by their security personnel. They also revealed that they disbursed the funds to the security personnel of both agencies: Nolasco and Lachica.
The House committee on good government and public accountability, in June, recommended the filing of a plunder case against VP Sara and other personnel, including Nolasco and Lachica, over the confidential funds issue. The two officers are also among the respondents in the plunder complaint recently filed with the Ombudsman — still in relation to the confidential funds mess.
Meanwhile, in October, the Armed Forces of the Philippines reassigned Lachica to the Philippine Army due to the Ombudsman complaint.
Mans Carpio and magnetic lifters
Madriaga also dragged the name of the Vice President’s husband, lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio. He claimed that during a meeting with Carpio at Burgos Circle in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, the lawyer allegedly instructed him and his team to pick up magnetic lifters at the Bureau of Customs.
“The original plan, however, was aborted because one of President Duterte’s men working as an intelligence officer tipped us off that the shipment was a hot item and that someone had their eye on the magnetic lifters containing tons of methamphetamine hydrochloride,” the former intelligence officer claimed.
Madriaga said he later informed Carpio that the shipment was being monitored, but he was told by the lawyer to “do what is necessary.” He said they facilitated the item’s release from Customs, and learned that the item was facilitated out of the BOC with the help of Customs fixer Mark Taguba.
We have reached out to Carpio for a statement and we will update this story once he responds.
The former intelligence officer’s supposed information about Carpio’s involvement in the magnetic lifters issue was rather scant. This allegation was not new either because the issue has been festering for years now.
Last August 2024, former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban accused Davao 1st District Representative Paolo Duterte, Carpio, and former Rodrigo Duterte economic adviser Michael Yang of allegedly owning the magnetic lifters that concealed P11-billion worth of illegal drugs seized in Cavite back in 2018.
In another hearing in November of the same year, Guban claimed that former Presidential Task Force on Media Security chief Paul Gutierrez went to his holding room in the Senate in 2018, threatening him not to mention the names of Paolo Duterte, Carpio, and Yang during the upper chamber’s probe into the magnetic lifters issue.
Meanwhile, Madriaga also claimed that ISIP Pilipinas and its parallel groups’ funding allegedly came from POGOs and drug dealers. He claimed he was able to identify these people during his cash pick-ups in hotels in Quezon City and Taguig City.
But similar to his allegations pertaining to the magnetic lifters, Madriaga’s POGO-related allegations also lacked specific details. Although it was former president Duterte who enabled POGO operations in the country which led to heinous crimes like trafficking, a direct link has yet to be established between the former president and POGOs.
The closest connection so far is via Hongjiang Yang, Michael Yang’s brother, who has ties to Hong Sheng Gaming Corporation, a Tarlac-based POGO. – Rappler.com
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