Michael Ray Aquino, a former cop from Manila was arrested early September along with Philippines-born FBI intelligence analyst, Leandro Aragoncillo, for allegedly stealing and passing classified information, some of which contained secret information about Filipino leaders.

US authorities said the material pertained to sensitive information about the Philippines, which has been rocked by political crisis involving allegations of vote fraud against President Gloria Arroyo.

The Philippine government suspects Aquino may have been using Canada and the U.S. as a base to orchestrate a destabilization plot against Arroyo's government.

Aquino is also a key suspect in connection with investigations involving murder, drug smuggling and helping move millions for top Filipino politicians.

Sources told The Asian Pacific Post, Aquino fled the Philippines for Canada on July 27, 2001 after he was implicated in the murder of a publicist, the summary execution of members of an illegal betting syndicate and after his police team was investigated for using navy divers to pick up heroin dropped from Chinese shipping vessels in Manila Bay.

He is believed to have used fake passports to sneak out of the Philippines via Mactan International Airport in Cebu on a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong en route to Las Vegas and later Canada.

Later that same year Aquino and others were stopped by Canadian Customs in Halifax for not declaring some US$30,000 (C$35,053) they were carrying.

A source said Aquino had also tried to smuggle one million (C$1.2 million) dollars from Canada into America via the Buffalo border crossing.

Aquino is well connected in Canada's Filipino community in Vancouver and Toronto.

One of his contacts in Canada has been identified as Filipino-Canadian businessman Jerome Tang.

The money confiscated at the border crossings has been linked to Philippine presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson--Aquino's former boss and the ex-head of the Philippine National Police.

Lacson is one of three top Filipino politicians whom the U.S. believes received the secret documents via Aquino and his FBI connection.

The Senator has admitted in a TV interview that he has received information from U.S. government sources about the Philippine political situation but denied espionage charges.

He also said that he will help Aquino, who was his former aide, in his legal battle in the United States.

Lacson is also facing accusations that he, and his wife, have secret deposits in a Canadian financial institution and 16 other bank accounts in Hong Kong and the United States, totalling over US$700 (C$817.8) million.

The money, police said in a report to Philippine president Gloria Arroyo is believed to have been amassed by Lacson and his cronies since 1996 from drug smuggling, money laundering operations and the kidnapping for ransom of Chinese businessmen in Manila.
Lacson claims the allegations against him are rooted in a plan to stop him from becoming president. He has denied all charges.

The National Bureau of Investigation in Manila said it would be tracing the recipients of the forwarded FBI documents about "highly-classified assessment of the Philippine political situation and leaders" and who provided the funds reportedly paid to Aquino and Aragoncillo, the FBI insider.

"Large amounts of money changed hands," an official said.

U.S. Federal prosecutors said Aragoncillo started printing and downloading secret information from the bureau since January this year. Aragoncillo was hired to work at Fort Monmouth army base in New Jersey in July 2004.

Investigators found that from May to August of this year, Aragoncillo was able to print or download 101 documents.

FBI's probe on the conspiracy began after immigration department authorities arrested Aquino in March because of overstaying on a tourist visa used to enter the US in July 2001.

After Aquino's arrest, the FBI learned that Aragoncillo inquired about the former police official. This prompted a bureau review of Aragoncillo's work at Monmouth.

Aquino, a graduate of the prestigious Philippine Military Academy, was a protege of Lacson when they were both part of an anti-crime task force under then-president Joseph Estrada in the late-1990s.

Aquino, however, fled the Philippines several years ago after being indicted in Manila for the November 2000 murder of a publicist who allegedly leaked information on Estrada.
The homicide case against Aquino has been stalled in Philippine courts.

Estrada was ousted in a military-backed popular revolt in 2001 and is in detention while being tried for massive corruption, which he denies.

Arroyo, his then-vice president, was installed to finish the remainder of Estrada's term. She last year won a fresh six-year term but has been accused of vote rigging.

Coup rumors have been hounding her since then. Arroyo is one of President George Bush's closest allies in the war on terror.

Her main rival for the top job in the Philippines is Senator Lacson.

The arrest of Aquino, coincided with Arroyo's arrival in New York for her engagement in the United Nation's 60th anniversary celebrations.