Ricaforte gets cold feet, defers US trip

Yolanda Ricaforte did not leave the country yesterday as she was reported earlier to be planning to do.

Records at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) showed that Ricaforte, the star witness at the Senate jueteng hearings, canceled her booking on Cathay Pacific Airways Flight 906 minutes before boarding time yesterday.

Based on Flight 906’s manifest, Ricaforte, who is the wife of Tourism Underscretary Orestes Ricaforte, was given seat No. 47 J on board a Boeing 747 jetliner bound for Los Angeles via Hong Kong.

The Cathay Pacific flight took off from NAIA at 1:15 p.m. yesterday.

But Ricaforte’s counsel Reynaldo Umali told The STAR yesterday that his client’s reported departure was "a disinformation" being spread by her detractors.

"She never plans to leave the country while the investigation on the jueteng scandal is still going on," he said.

Umali told radio station dzRH yesterday Ricaforte was resting at home because she had been sick, and that the "Yolanda Ricaforte" booked on Cathay Pacific Airways Flight 906 could have been another person.

But Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, told reporters yesterday it was alright for Ricaforte "to take a break" as long as she would make herself available when asked to testify.

Pimentel said Ricaforte is not required to ask permission from the committee to leave the country since she had shown her willingness to appear during the jueteng hearings.

Ricaforte cannot avoid testifying before the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings on the jueteng scandal, which resumes on Nov. 13, he added.

"We need time to sit down (and discuss) the testimonial evidences." he said.

Ricaforte was forced to return to the country from San Francisco last Oct. 23 to testify before a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing as the star witness in the jueteng payoffs as exposed last month by Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson.

A member of the governor’s staff told a committee hearing that Ricaforte is the alleged auditor assigned by President Estrada to keep tabs on collections from jueteng nationwide. Records at the Bureau of Immigration showed that Ricaforte’s name is not on the hold-departure list disseminated to immigration officers in the country’s various airports and seaports.

Meanwhile, radio station dzXL reported yesterday that Ricaforte will be arrested by Internal Revenue Service agents once she sets foot in the United States.

Quoting US sources, the news report said INS agents want to question Ricaforte about her statement before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that she has P200 million in her bank account.

Under American law, an immigrant must declare his assets and liabilities after arriving in the US, the report added. – Rey Arquiza, Aurea Calica, Myds Supnad