Marcos Agents Set Up Explosives Case Defendant, Jury Told

A long-delayed trial certain to stir bitter memories of the Ferdinand Marcos regime opened Monday with the defense charging that agents of the Philippine dictator set up defendant Steven E. Psinakis.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles Burch, presenting it as a simple explosives case, objected repeatedly as defense lawyer James Brosnahan claimed that Psinakis was a target of the CIA and Marcos’ agents in the United States and that the bitter foe of Marcos is a victim of planted evidence.

Acceding to Burch’s effort to limit Brosnahan’s attack, U.S. District Judge Robert Schnacke declared, “We’re not going to have an emotional or political defense here.”

Brosnahan persisted, noting that FBI agents who found remnants of explosive detonation cord in a search of Psinakis’ garbage did not take possession of the garbage until several hours after a garbage company employee picked it up from Psinakis’ San Francisco home in December, 1981.

“It was planted there by someone. The question is by whom,” Brosnahan told the jury as the trial got under way.

Brosnahan noted that Psinakis was a likely target of foreign agents because he was among the most outspoken foes in this country of Marcos, decrying the regime’s corruption in interviews and congressional testimony. Psinakis remains a close friend and supporter of President Corazon Aquino, whose government had sought to get the United States to drop the charges against him.

Psinakis, 57, faces a two-count indictment returned in 1986 charging him with conspiracy to transport explosives from St. Louis to San Francisco in late 1981. He could be sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $20,000 if he is convicted.

Law enforcement authorities have said that some of the explosives were used to bomb at least one target in the Philippines, although the indictment makes no mention of the allegation.

A St. Louis doctor, Arturo Taca, who purchased the detonating cord and blasting caps and shipped them to San Francisco via Greyhound bus, is expected to be a key witness in the government’s effort to tie Psinakis to the explosives.

In his opening statement, Burch noted that the indictment does not “say anything at all about the Philippines” and told the jurors that they will not be asked to decide anything about the Philippines.

Burch told jurors he will introduce evidence of FBI wiretaps on Psinakis’ phone, pieces of detonation cord pulled from his garbage and a letter that Psinakis is said to have written.

Burch contends that the 1981 letter, addressed “Dearest Buddy,” was to be sent to Charles Avila, a co-defendant in the conspiracy. Avila remains in the Philippines where he is mayor of a city. The letter describes difficulties encountered by Taca in extracting “powdered sugar” from the “rope.”

The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, has attracted intense interest both here and in Manila. More than 50 friends and family members packed the federal courtroom Monday morning. The latest issue of the Philippine News, a newspaper published near here, prominently displayed a photo of a pro-Psinakis rally outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila.

Aquino earlier this month hailed Psinakis’ “tremendous contribution” to the Philippines and said, “I just hope he will get a fair deal and that justice will prevail in this case.”

Testimony on Psinakis’ behalf is expected from Raoul Manglapas, Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, and Romeo Arguelles of the Philippine Consulate here who knew of the activities of agents in the Marcos regime.

Psinakis was also a friend of the late Philippine Sen. Benigno Aquino, the martyr of the Philippine revolution whose assassination upon his return to Manila in 1983 fueled the campaign to oust Marcos three years later. Aquino’s voice was on some of the wiretapped conversations.

In the drawn-out pretrial stage of the case, Brosnahan charged that the Justice Department illegally targeted Psinakis for prosecution after Imelda Marcos met with then President-elect Ronald Reagan in December, 1980, in New York and asked for help to stop anti-Marcos forces operating in the United States.

Burch has denied political motives in the case.

Psinakis’ involvement in Philippines politics stemmed from his marriage to Presentacion (Presy) Lopez and friendship with other members of the family of once-wealthy media baron Eugenio Lopez Sr. Marcos stripped the family of its empire in the 1970s.

Psinakis, a Greek-born citizen of the United States, returned to the Philippines with his wife after Aquino’s ascent and became vice president of a conglomerate there. Authorities arrested him at San Francisco International Airport in July, 1987, as he arrived here on a business trip.