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Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Arroyo slams legislator over bank account claim
MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday lashed at Taguig-Pateros Representative Alan Peter Cayetano for accusing her and her family of maintaining bank accounts in Germany amounting to millions of dollars.
Arroyo, in a press conference with election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, said she broke her silence to tell the people about the "grave injustice" that Cayetano did to her family.
Cayetano, for his part, kept mum on Arroyo's tirade and said Monday he will reply to it in a privilege speech during the House session on Tuesday.
Arroyo said Cayetano "shamelessly peddled the lie" that her family is maintaining a bank account in Munich and has refused to be "man enough to admit his mistake" even if official bank records have shown that he is wrong.
She said HypoVereinsbank, alleged depository of the accounts, had officially cleared her and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.
Palace reporters were furnished copies of the letters of HypoVereinsbank head of general secretary Evi Hollman and compliance officer Dr. Klaus-Michael Ploss to the Arroyo couple.
Vollmann and Ploss, in a letter to President Arroyo dated August 30, said the bank has no account with the numbers 87-570-23030-32100-62771571 and 87-570-23030-32100-6271571 under the name of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
In a separate letter to her husband, the two bank officials said they do not have accounts with the numbers 87-570-23030-32100-62771571 and 87-570-23030-32100-6271571 in the name of Mr. Jose Miguel T. Arroyo.
President Arroyo asked Cayetano to stop besmirching her family's name to advance his political agenda. She said Cayetano "has done a disservice not only to his constituents but to the entire public."
"I am breaking my silence because I can no longer allow my family to be pilloried in this manner by a man who I had thought to bear the honor and principle of a respected father and senator of the republic," she said, referring to the late former senator Rene Cayetano.
"I wish to share the indignation of honest, trustworthy, and hardworking Filipinos who are smeared and libeled, and whose dignity is assaulted by gossip and intrigue," she added.
She said instead of engaging in poison politics, everyone should help in the country's economic takeoff. She said the Philippines is on the road to being debt-free on top of a balanced budget by 2008, when debt payments are reduced by half.
Macalintal said Congressman Cayetano's challenge to the President to sign a waiver that would open her German accounts indicates he is only "fishing for evidence" and that one cannot waive something that does not exist.
He said the Arroyo couple's camp told officials of the HypoVereinsbank that they would be happy to assist them if will undertake any action against Cayetano, whom he also accused of furthering his senatorial ambitions at the First Family's expense. Cayetano ranks eighth in Pulse Asia's recent survey on senatorial preferences.
He said the President is not trying to intimidate Cayetano or any other opposition member but only wants to "report to the people" the congressman's actions against her family.
On Cayetano's pronouncement that he will resign if proven wrong, he said: "I think he should start writing the draft (resignation letter) already."
At the House of Representatives, Cayetano refused to comment on the statement of President Arroyo.
The congressman said he would give his answer to the President's remarks on Tuesday through a privilege speech.
Cayetano's allies in the minority believe the congressman would stand pat on his claims that the Arroyos have a secret account in HypoVereinsbank.
Thus, they added, there is no way he would admit that he has committed a mistake.
It was not immediately known though if the beleaguered congressman would still challenge the President and her husband to sign a waiver that could open any bank account with HypoVereinsbank.
House Minority Leader Francis Escudero, for his part, defended Cayetano by challenging the President to break her silence over the other bank accounts that she and her family reportedly own.
"In choosing only Alan and focusing on the German account, and keeping silent on other accounts, properties and allegations, is she (the President) admitting that the other accounts and allegations leveled against her are true?" he said.
Not only Escudero and Cayetano, but most members of the opposition in the House, have long been demanding that the President answer all the allegations leveled against her by asking her supporters in the House to allow pro-impeachment groups to open the seven boxes of evidence. (JMR/DBP/Sunnex)
(September 5, 2006 issue)
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