Mike ready to face accusers before Senate

KUALA LUMPUR (via PLDT) — First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo said here yesterday he is ready for a face-to-face confrontation with the two women who have accused him of receiving P50 million for the recall of presidential vetoes on two controversial telecommunications franchises.

The two — former presidential correspondence secretary Veronica "Bing" Rodrigo and former Department of Transportation and Communications consultant Malou Nuñez — have however subsequently recanted their allegations.

Rodrigo had said the source of her bribery "rumor" was Nuñez while Nuñez claimed what she knew about the alleged bribery came from cellphone text messages.

Arroyo, accompanying his wife President Arroyo on her first foreign trip as Chief Executive here, professed anew his innocence of the charges that he received the P50 million in exchange for the withdrawal of the presidential veto on the franchises awarded to Philippine Communications Clearinghouse Inc. (PCCI) and APC Wireless Interface Network (WIN).

"I don’t know that Malou. Even if you put her in front of me, I would not know her. Si Bing, I have not seen her also. And they claim I talked with them in San Francisco. Hindi ko kilala ang mga taong ’yan (I don’t know these people). But, as I have said, I’m willing to forgive and forget," Arroyo told reporters accompanying the President in her state visit to Malaysia.

The 55-year-old Arroyo was referring to his recent trip to San Francisco, California where he allegedly met secretly with the two women to reach an "amicable settlement."

Actually, Arroyo said, he underwent surgery in California for his slipped disc he suffered in a near helicopter crash in Northern Luzon in 1998.

In Saipan, a visiting Filipino lawmaker said that to clear the name of her family, President Arroyo should support the passage of a bill that would declare her husband and other relatives — up to the third degree of consanguinity or affinity — as government officials.

Senior Deputy House Majority Leader Francis Joseph Escudero (NPC, Sorsogon) said he will introduce in the 12th Congress a bill which would declare presidential relatives as government officials so they could be the subject of official government investigations.

"It’s being drafted now and it will be filed next week. We ask the President to support it, certify it as a priority bill to clear her name," said Escudero, who was guest speaker during the induction ceremonies of the Bicol Association in the Northern Marianas at a hotel in Saipan.

Escudero said the proposed measure will put more teeth in the executive order prohibiting presidential relatives from transacting on behalf of the President with any government agency. The order was one of the very first issued by Mrs. Arroyo.

"That was only an executive order. We are seeking to make it a law to make it more binding. It will not only apply to her but also to future presidents," he said.

Under Escudero’s proposal, presidential relatives would be treated like any other government personnel who could be placed under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan.

Escudero cited the fact that at present, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee cannot even invoke its authority over the First Gentleman even if he has been accused of taking the P50-million PCCI bribe.