Aguirre: Deposits total P88 M

MANILA, Philippines - The amount involved is not just P24 million but P88 million, and the final figure could amount to as much as a billion.

These are the bank deposits linked to Sen. Leila de Lima that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said his department is investigating.

However, Aguirre said they are still completing and verifying their information.

Facing reporters yesterday, Aguirre brushed aside a Facebook post in which one of the depositors denied ownership of the accounts or implicating De Lima in drug payoffs.

Aguirre also shrugged off De Lima’s threat to file charges against him for perjury for manufacturing evidence against her.

“We are just building the case with regard to these deposits, that the money was allegedly intended by then Secretary De Lima for Ronnie Palisoc Dayan who was her former driver and bodyguard,” Aguirre told reporters yesterday.

He said the Department of Justice (DOJ) also received information that there were not only two but five persons who allegedly deposited the large sums of money.

It was earlier reported that there were documents allegedly showing that P24 million was deposited in a bank account of a former staff of De Lima when she was the justice secretary.

The deposits were made on different dates in March and April of 2014.

The alleged depositor is Edna “Bogs” Obuyes, one of two contractual clerks who previously worked at the office of the DOJ secretary.

Obuyes was reportedly interrogated by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Aside from Obuyes, another clerk, Jonathan “Jong” Caranto, reportedly submitted affidavits alleging that they were told by De Lima to deposit millions of pesos in a bank account that was not under her name.

One of Aguirre’s documents reportedly showed that Caranto deposited a total of P24 million; Obuyes deposited a total of P24 million; Marco Palisoc deposited a total of P14,304 million; Marrel Obuye, P2.2 million; and Hanna Mae Dayan, P24 million.

One of the dates when Bogs Obuyes reportedly made a deposit was April 18, 2014, which was Good Friday, when banks are closed in this country.

But Aguirre said that even if one deposit slip was discredited, there are other deposit slips.

“It could even reach a billion, but it would be difficult (to determine) because there is a bank secrecy law. We might have to ask the help of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).”

Probers have a total of 19 deposit slips amounting to P88 million. The slips were reportedly provided by a female source who collected them from three other persons.

Only Caranto and Obuyes were DOJ employees.

Aguirre is contemplating the possibility of placing Caranto under the department’s Witness Protection Program.

The deposits, all in BDO bank accounts, were allegedly made starting February 2014, while the last deposit date was 10 days before the May 9 elections or on April 29 this year.

Dayan reportedly recommended Caranto, a distant relative in Pangasinan, to De Lima for employment in the DOJ.

Aguirre said he was trying to be careful and thorough with the investigation, but someone leaked the information about the bank deposits to the media while they were still at the verification stage. 

He stressed that in his 44 years as a practicing lawyer, he would not allow himself to be used by anyone, not even the President.

Over the years, Aguirre said he has also developed the skill to determine if a person was lying or not.

He said there are people supporting De Lima who are conducting a disinformation campaign because the senator is the “poster girl of the opposition” whose integrity must be preserved.

“So I am careful in assessing the documents. I don’t immediately trust the information being given to me,” Aguirre said.

But he admitted that in order to speed up the investigation process, he needed more lawyers.

The DOJ has so far only one undersecretary, who started working only yesterday, and still has no assistant secretary.

Aguirre explained that they learned about the existence of the alleged deposit slips when someone informed him that one of those mentioned by President Duterte in his drug matrix was Caranto, a DOJ employee.

When Aguirre called Caranto to his office, the former employee allegedly confessed that he was instructed by De Lima to deposit money about six times, with amounts ranging from P20,000 to P40,000. 

When asked if the money was deposited in his account, Caranto said that the millions were not placed in his name.

Asked if he had a lawyer, Caranto said the counsel was in the province. Aguirre provided a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) lawyer, who accompanied Caranto to the NBI.

Caranto reportedly cooperated because he wanted to clear his name.

Aguirre said the DOJ has in its possession bank deposit slips bearing Obuyes’ name, as he belied a Facebook post in which she denied implicating De Lima.

Caranto was subjected to a polygraph test at the NBI and he passed the examination.

Obuyes did not return to the NBI. With Ghio Ong