‘Dichaves a mere Estrada agent’

Businessman Jaime Dichaves is not the controversial Jose Velarde and is only an agent of deposed President Joseph Estrada, the actual owner of the Velarde accounts, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

Belmonte, who managed the prosecution in Estrada’s impeachment trial, was reacting to reports that Dichaves, one of several cronies of the ousted leader, could be Velarde based on a letter contained in the second Equitable PCIBank envelope which the Senate opened on Wednesday.

The letter, dated Aug. 25, 1999, is signed by Dichaves, who requested the Binondo, Manila branch of Equitable to open a savings and a checking account "for Jose Velarde, c/o the undersigned."

"No, he is not Velarde. It is Erap who is Jose Velarde, and Dichaves is a mere agent (of Estrada)," Belmonte told a news conference.

He said the tenor of the letter itself shows that the crony of the ousted president is just an agent.

Belmonte said what Se-nate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Ombudsman Aniano Desierto saw in the second Equitable envelope "was exactly what we were talking about — that Estrada has amassed billions in less than three years in office."

Besides the Dichaves letter, the envelope contained bank statements showing the flow of money into the Velarde accounts.

"But what we (prosecution) have is somewhat more complete than the contents of the second envelope," Belmonte said.

He said prosecutors traced the deposits made in the Velarde accounts and found out that they were funds contributed by cronies and other friends of Estrada.

"This alone belies the claim of Dichaves that he is Velarde. If he is, why did Mark Jimenez and the others contribute huge sums to that account?" he asked.

Belmonte said the sources of the funds in the Velarde accounts are not indicated in the bank statements contained in the second Equitable envelope.

But it would be easy for Desierto to verify them and inquire into the details of the contributions, he said.

He said insofar as the specific impeachment charges against Estrada are concerned, the bank statements prove that the ousted leader had more money in the bank than what he had declared in his Dec. 31, 1999 statement of assets and liabilities (SAL).

In his SAL, the Estrada couple declared assets valued at P35 million, of which about P6.5 million was in cash.

The bank statements also reflect the P500-million investment the ousted president, as Jose Velarde, made on Feb. 4, 2000.

Equitable senior vice president Clarissa Ocampo had testified in Estrada’s impeachment trial last December that she saw the deposed leader sign the investment papers as Jose Velarde.

She also testified that Dichaves signed a new set of documents several days later showing that he is the owner of the Velarde accounts.

Belmonte said this is another proof that Dichaves is a mere agent of Estrada.

"Otherwise, there would be no need for him to sign a new set of investment papers," he said.

He pointed out that had the defense panel not blocked the opening of the second envelope, it could have used the Dichaves letter in its defense of Estrada.

"Gago sila, hindi nila pinayagang mabuksan yung envelope (They are fools, they did not allow the envelope to be opened)," he said.

He noted that Estrada’s lawyers had been insisting that their client is not Dichaves.

For his part, Makati Rep. Joker Arroyo, a member of the prosecution panel, said the decision of the defense panel to block the opening of the envelope and the controversial vote of the 11 pro-Estrada senators "could have been the will of God."

"I think there was Divine intervention here. God did not want us to suffer more under a corrupt administration," he said.

He said had Estrada’s lawyers and allies in the Senate allowed the opening of the second envelope, "Erap could still be our president."

The ousted president’s lawyers and pro-Estrada senators could have hammered away at the Dichaves letter and strengthened their argument that Estrada is not Velarde, added Arroyo, a senatorial candidate of the ruling People Power Coalition.