It’s Arroyos who should apologize:Cayetano

News item in Malaya today (Aug. 21, 2006)

TAGUIG-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday. brushed aside Palace demands for an apology, saying it should instead be President Arroyo who should say sorry “for cheating, lying and stealing the (2004) elections.”

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye has demanded from Cayetano a “full and unconditional retraction” and a “public apology to the first family” after the latter accused the Arroyos of maintaining an account with a German bank.

“If that is not forthcoming, the proper charges shall be filed and full justice and retribution shall be sought for the damage done,” Bunye added.

Cayetano on Friday said a bank deposit was traced to members of Arroyo’s family in Hypo-und Vereinsbank in Munich, Germany, under account No. 87570-23030-32100-6271-571. He said the documents on the deposit are contained in one of the seven boxes of evidence on the impeachment complaint, which the President’s allies in the House refused to open.

Opposition sources said the documents showed movements of unusually huge amounts of money to the German bank through a member of an armed department of government closely identified with “an immediate member” of the Arroyo family. The amount allegedly involved is in the range of $500 million.

Although he was not named by Cayetano, Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo (Lakas, Pampanga) last Friday denied the allegation. “Haka-haka lamang yan,” he told a radio interview. “These allegations are just mudslinging tactics,” he said.

Cayetano said in a radio interview: “This is not a wild goose chase because, one, there is an account number and, two, this has been going around in official circles. This is being investigated and is going around not only locally but internationally. So, I’m just giving them the opportunity to clear themselves.”

Hypo-und Vereinsbank (HVB Group) is Germany’s second largest bank after Deutsche Bank with 8.8 million customers. It operates 2,000 branches in more than 40 countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Germany, which is part of the global anti-money laundering network, requires reporting of deposits amounting to 15,000 euros or more. (A euro is equivalent to P65.93).

Cayetano dismissed the challenge of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo to accompany him to Germany to claim the account.

“Dapat sumagot sila (Arroyos). Dalawa lang ang paraan para malaman ang totoo dito. Una ay ituloy dapat ang impeachment. Ang ikalawa ay ang ginawa ni Sen. Panfilo Lacson na pumirma ng waiver upang mabuksan ang ano mang bank account na mai-uugnay sa kanya,” he said.

“We can start with the one in Perea street in Makati,” Cayetano, said referring to a deposit at the BPI-Family Bank in the Makati-Perea branch under account No. 661-5-00497-7 under the name of Jose Pidal.

The junked impeachment complaint accused the President of “engaging in graft and corruption, entering into illegal government contracts and criminally concealing her conjugal assets.”

It said the President and Mike Arroyo concealed their conjugal assets through the Jose Pidal accounts and acquired money from the Piatco bribery, the Northrail project, jueteng and as well as the illegal withholding of interior revenue allotments of local governments.

Upon the respondent’s assumption to the presidency in 2001, the complaint said “she restored and allowed the proliferation of jueteng nationwide, and appointed law enforcement officials who acted as conduits in the payment to her of jueteng payola.”

“Respondent received monthly jueteng payola amounting to at least P 1 million per region through her spouse/congressman-son/brother-in-law (Rep. Ignacio Arroyo of Negros Occidental). The respondent used jueteng proceeds to bankroll her 2004 presidential campaign, to finance massive electoral fraud, and to bribe government officials,” it said.

The complaint said that when Arroyo filed her statement of assets and liabilities and net worth in February 2001, “she concealed ownership of various properties and business interests pertaining to her and her spouse, and willfully failed to pay the taxes due on these properties and the income derived from them, in violation of the disclosure requirements under the code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials and employees, applicable tax laws, and the constitutional provisions on the accountability of public officials.”

The alleged concealed conjugal properties and business interests include real estate properties and the money realized from the re-sale of several of the properties located in California acquired and managed though LTA Realty Corp., which include a five-story apartment building at 737 Bush St. in San Francisco; a condominium unit a 1176 Sacramento and Van Ness in San Francisco; a residence at 2425 Tipperary ave. also in San Francisco; a building at 727 Gellert blvd., Daly City, California, and a 24-room building at 151 Austin st. in San Francisco.

It also said that the President owns a 60,758-square meter parcel of land in Caloocan City covered by TCT No. 153151 and titled to Mike Arroyo and to herself.

It also alleged that the Arroyos have business interests in DM Press Inc., Raco Trading Phil. Inc. Trans Realty Co. Inc., Aviatica Travel and Management Corp., Eva development corp. and Pacific Mint International Corp., JMA Agricultural Development Corp. and Alaja Agro-industrial Corp.

WITCH-HUNT

Majority congressmen slammed the opposition for engaging in a “fishing expedition” against the first family.

The lawmakers said the opposition has grown increasingly desperate due to its failed impeachment bid, thus, it is resorting to trial by publicity against the President and her family.

Kampi Rep. Rodito Albano lll (Isabela), Nationalist People’s Coalition Reps. Eduardo Veloso (Leyte) and Douglas Cagas (Davao del Sur), and Lakas Rep. Monico Puentevella (Bacolod City) said if Cayetano’s exposé is an example of the evidence in the impeachment complainants’ seven boxes, then the contents belong in the San Mateo landfill.

“The opposition is just doing a Pandora’s box thing. First they claim to have their evidence in the seven boxes and now they alleged the First Gentleman to be owning bank accounts in Germany. They are just inciting public curiosity to mislead the people that the Arroyos have committed wrongdoing. That is unfair,” said Albano.

Veloso, a member of the justice committee, said the opposition is growing desperate after the justice committee junked the impeachment complaint for insufficiency in substance.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Cayetano must be ready to prove his “irresponsible” statements.

“If he cannot prove that, he will be liable for libel,” he said.

Gonzalez said Cayetano committed grave abuse of his parliamentary powers for smearing the President’s name.

“He (Cayetano) knew fully well that for any speech or statement he made on the floor of Congress or anywhere, even if there’s not an iota of truth in it, he cannot be arrested while Congress is in session,” he said.

“It’s nothing but a cheap propaganda stunt,” Gonzalez said.

Presidential adviser for political affairs Gabriel Claudio said Cayetano’s baiting of congressmen to open the opposition’s so-called boxes of evidence will not work.

He said Cayetano could either file charges and present evidence in court or file an appropriate case of money laundering abroad.

“As First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo has challenged him, he must now prove his allegations or else raise and donate the amount he claims to be illegally possessed by the First Family to the Filipino people and be proven the biggest grandstander of Philippine politics,” he added. – Ellen Tordesillas,Evangeline de Vera and Jocelyn Montemayor