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Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Gloria brod-in-law: Pidal account mine
MANILA -- A brother-in-law of President Arroyo admitted on Monday to owning a bank account under an alias that an opposition senator claimed was used to launder millions of election campaign funds.
Jose Ignacio Arroyo, a businessman sibling of President Arroyo's husband Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, said during a press conference he opened the account with Union Bank in 1999.
He added the account was closed sometime in August 2001, a month before the Anti-Money Laundering Act was signed into law.
Opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson alleged last month that Mike Arroyo laundered nearly P100 million in campaign funds for the election of his wife to accounts under the fictitious name of Jose Pidal.
In a speech on the Senate floor on Monday, Lacson charged that the President's husband used "12 local bank accounts with more than P260 million in recent deposits" as "his laundry machines".
Ignacio insisted the money in the account was his and denied that any of the funds were proceeds from criminal activity.
"I am a law abiding citizen," Ignacio said, explaining that he used an alias to protect himself from kidnap syndicates.
"I have never engaged myself in any unlawful and illegal activity," added Ignacio, who is president of the Arroyo clan's company LTA Inc.
Common practice
He said he opened an account under Jose Pidal instead of his real name "for security reasons and for legitimate purposes."
"The opening of account under an alias during the late 90s was to the best of my knowledge a common business practice," said Ignacio.
Ignacio said he opened the Union Bank account in 1999. He said he first used Jose Pidal as an alias in 1997 but he did not say at which bank he opened that account. He added he closed this account in 1997 but reopened it in 2000.
He did not say though if the Jose Pidal account he opened in 2000 was already closed.
Lacson repeated Monday that one of the Jose Pidal accounts had a balance of 36.6 million on July 30.
But Ignacio dismissed as a "total falsehood" Lacson's claim that the Jose Pidal account at the Union Bank branch in Perea Street had P33.6 million as of July 30.
Lacson also said a P1.35-million check had been paid to one of the Jose Pidal accounts in February by the local lottery, a government operation supervised by the office of the president.
"Corruption, since time immemorial, has pauperized the nation, causing massive poverty, and inflicting rot and decay in our entire body politic," he added.
Not forced
Ignacio further added Lacson supposedly hinted he knew that a brother of the First Gentleman owned the Jose Pidal account.
"Why then did Senator Lacson originally claim that the First Gentleman is the owner of the said account? Is there a concerted effort to maliciously direct controversies to the First Family?" Ignacio asked.
The younger Arroyo also said his brother did not force him to claim ownership of the Jose Pidal account.
"I will never let myself be used by anyone, not even my brother," he said.
The younger Arroyo said he has submitted his specimen signature to handwriting experts at the Philippine National Police (PNP) crime laboratory to prove that it was he, not his brother, who signed Jose Pidal on bank documents.
He also admitted knowing Victoria Toh, but denied he owned a joint bank account with her. Toh, he said, was his "chief financial officer."
Ignacio said he knew as well Eugenio Mahusay Jr., Lacson's star witness, denied he let the office messenger do bank transactions on his behalf.
A few years back, the younger Arroyo claimed ownership of an apartment building that detractors of President Arroyo and her husband alleged belonged to the First Couple but that they failed to include this in their statement of assets and liabilities.
Ignacio is chairman of President Arroyo's Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) party in Western Visayas. He is the husband of Philippine Stock Exchange head Alicia Rita Morales. Miko Santos/(With AFP)
(September 2, 2003 issue)
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Lacson’s latest charge: Mike Arroyo has P260M