MANILA, Oct. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Philippine Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Friday ordered the country's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the source of money used to pay a Filipino-American who reportedly spied for the Philippine opposition from within the White House and FBI in Washington.

    He said the NBI is tasked to make clear the "money trail" from the Philippines to former Filipino police Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino and FBI analyst Leandro Aragoncillo, the Filipino-American who has been arrested for suspected spying by USauthorities.

    Arogoncillo reportedly stole confidential documents from the White House and FBI from 2001 till July this year, mostly on reports of the US government on the situation in the Philippines.

    Aquino has also been indicted by a Newark, New Jersey, federal grand jury in the United States on charges of conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

    "Why would Aragoncillo do these things without expecting monetary reward?" Gonzalez pointed out during an interview with reporters. "In the history of espionage, there is always money involved."

    In his directive to the NBI, Gonzalez said the probe "will eventually establish the conspiracy between the duo (Aragoncillo and Aquino) and the supposed ranking Filipino officials" who received allegedly classified information on the Philippines.

    Local media reports quoted unidentified US and Philippine officials as saying that two "national level officials" and one former national level official of the Philippines were the recipients of the stolen documents.

    The opposition was reportedly encouraged to stage actions to topple President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after knowing from the documents that the US Embassy in Manila had sent reports giving poor scores to the Arroyo administration. Enditem