MANILA, Oct. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- A Philippine presidential aide said on Friday that the government will seek cooperation from the United States to determine who are behind moves to bring down President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

    Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said it was important for the government to unearth the truth about the espionage case involving a Filipino-American who worked in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and a former Filipino police officer reportedly with close ties to the Philippine opposition.

    FBI analyst Leandro Aragoncillo and former Filipino police officer Michael Ray Aquino were arrested in July for suspected espionage activities through illegal obtaining of confidential documents from the US government on the political situation in the Philippines.

    "If these are all true and the US will finally reveal the names of those involved, maybe then we will know the truth about the case," Ermita said. "We will know the specific details of the plans against President Arroyo."

    Meanwhile, Press Secretary and presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the case would be "entirely under the US authority."

    "The ball is now on the court of the US government. A US law has been violated, they're supposed to prosecute those who violated their own law," Bunye said.

    "We cannot just help but think that there are some politicians here in the country who are prepared to risk hurting US-Philippine relations just for the sake of their own ambitions," he added.

    The US television network ABC News reported on Thursday that the espionage case involving Aragoncillo is believed to be the first in the White House in recent years.

    Aragoncillo, 46, a native Filipino who became a naturalized US citizen having served as a US marine for 21 years, allegedly used his top secret clearance to steal classified information from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, ABC News reported.

    ABC said Aragoncillo worked undetected at the White House for almost three years before leaving to take a job in FBI. He was arrested last month and accused of downloading more than 100 classified documents from FBI computer databases.

    Officials told ABC the classified material which he stole included "damaging dossiers on President Arroyo." They were allegedly passed on to Filipino opposition politicians planning to oust Arroyo through a coup in the Philippines.

    The FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage at the White House in modern history, according to ABC. Enditem