Estrada: George Go not a crony

President Estrada denied allegations yesterday that George L. Go, who resigned the other day as Equitable-PCIBank chairman, is among his friends in the Filipino-Chinese business community.

"Everyone is now my crony," he told reporters yesterday. "Mr. George Go is not that close to me. I know him casually. We are just acquaintances."

The Chief Executive also refused to comment on allegations that Go resigned from Equitable to enable the bank to erase its "crony" image.

"I cannot say anything about that," he said. "That’s purely private. I have no knowledge about the banks and I must not comment on that. That’s a private (matter)."

Reports said Equitable was tagged as a "crony bank" because it was the drawee of checks issued by Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Cha-vit" Singson for alleged jueteng payoffs to Mr. Estrada.

Go resigned as chairman of Equitable-PCIBank during a special board meeting last Tuesday and was replaced by vice chairman Ricardo Romulo, president of the anti-Estrada Makati Business Club.

Go was dragged into the jueteng scandal after Singson identified him as a board member of the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation, said to be the recipient of P200 million in alleged jueteng payoffs.

However, Mr. Estrada said Lucio Tan, chairman of Philippine Airlines, is one of his close friends, and that he is proud of Tan’s various philanthropic acts.

Mr. Estrada lauded Tan for helping complete the construction of the Don Emilio Ejercito Diagnostic Center of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center in Quezon City.

"It should be obvious by now –especially to our business and industry leaders –that philanthropy is still alive in our country, as exemplified by Mr. Lucio Tan," the President said. "So on behalf of our Armed Forces, we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to him for his generosity."

Tan is president of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.