Ang names 2 witnesses in Bentain abduction

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said on Monday that controversial businessman Charlie "Atong" Ang has named two witnesses in the abduction of casino employee Edgar Bentain nearly eight years ago. "Ang has revealed to the NBI the identities of the two witnesses," said Diaz Regional Director Ric Diaz, chief of the NBI's criminal intelligence division. Diaz, who withheld the names of the supposed witnesses, said the NBI has reopened the Bentain case following "good leads" on the casino worker’s abudction. Ang, a co-accused in former President Joseph Estrada’s plunder case, was extradited from the United States last November 10. Known as a close associate and gambling buddy of the detained former President, Ang fled to the US shortly after Estrada’s ouster in January 2001. Diaz said one of the two witnesses is now based in the US and was linked to a former ranking official of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor). "The witness saw the actual abduction of Bentain in front of Grand Boulevard Hotel (formerly Silahis Hotel) on Roxas Boulevard in Malate, Manila on Jan. 16, 1999 but the witness was having second thoughts (on whether) to testify and execute affidavits in connection with the Bentain case," said Diaz. He said the other witness is an Ang associate who is still in Manila. NBI agents have yet to talk to the second witness. Bentain, who operated security cameras for Casino Filipino, went missing in January 1999. He reportedly leaked a video taken in 1996 of Estrada, then Vice President, playing cards at a casino in Manila. Ang was also in the video, which was used in the campaign against Estrada during the 1998 presidential elections that he handily won. Diaz added that they still cannot categorically say that Bentain was murdered. "We could not say that he was murdered…Unless someone comes out to testify that he saw Bentain being murdered," said Diaz. -GMANews.TV