Joker set to clear Mike A

First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo will be cleared by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee of allegations that he took a P40-million payoff so Pre-sident Arroyo would recall her veto of a bill seeking to grant a franchise to a controversial telecommunications company.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, the committee’s chairman, said yesterday they "have no choice" but to clear Mr. Arroyo after Pacifico Marcelo, president of Philippine Communications Clearing House Inc. (PCCI), admitted there was no bribery attempt involving the First Gentleman.

"Now there are other issues like the claim of Marcelo that President Arroyo tried to wrest majority control of PCCI, and the claim of Jonathan Ojano that Marcelo told of an P80-million offer by Sen. Edgardo Angara to involve the President in the scandal," Senator Arroyo said.

Marcelo has accused President Arroyo of trying to take over his company in exchange for her approval of the bill that would have granted his company a telecommunications franchise.

Marcelo said in an official statement yesterday he fears that he might end up as the accused as "this political war" begins to unravel.

"I just want to tell my story on how people in government wanted to take control of my business," he said. "My issue is that the President’s men wanted 51 percent of my company and the President herself made overtures in that direction."

Senator Arroyo said he will ask members of the Blue Ribbon Committee to end their investigation of the telecommunications scandal in next week’s hearing.

The seven resolutions filed by the opposition mentioned only the alleged bribery of Mr. Arroyo, he added.

Senators Robert Barbers and Francis Pangilinan agreed with Senator Arroyo that the Blue Ribbon Committee’s next hearing should be the last on the allegations on the First Gentleman.

The hearings have branched out to numerous issues without any solid pieces of evidence being presented, they added.

The two senators said they would recommend to the Blue Ribbon Committee to initiate the filing of perjury charges against Marcelo in court.

Senator Arroyo said the investigation must be confined to the subject of the seven resolutions, which is the alleged bribery of the First Gentleman.

There would be more unrelated accusations should the investigation drag on, he added.

Senator Arroyo said the Blue Ribbon Committee would not look into allegations of Ojano, Marcelo’s alleged business partner, that the opposition had put up a P200 million fund to destabilize the Arroyo administration.

"Ojano made his claim under oath and Senator Angara has not issued a statement contradicting this under oath," he said. "It is Ojano’s word against Angara’s but we will not ask Angara to testify or submit an affidavit to the committee."

Marcelo said Malacañang has succeeded in giving his plight political color that his complaint has been lost in the "political war" and the debate.

"Mine is a simple story which I want to tell my fellow Filipinos," he said. "What I earned in the US I brought back into our country, encouraged by the thought that I was helping our country. Now they tell me that I am not even a Filipino citizen."

But Pangilinan said Marcelo lied about his citizenship, and that his interview with a newspaper was fraught with inconsistencies about the shares of stocks in his companies and Malacañang’s alleged pressure on his subordinates to testify against him.

On the other hand, Barbers said Marcelo failed to submit the affidavits of his employees who are said to have received pressure from Malacañang.