Time for Acsa to move on

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Reynaldo Wycoco told tax diversion scam whistle-blower Acsa Ramirez to "forget the past," referring to the time she was wrongly presented to media as one of the accused in the scam.

Wycoco said Ramirez, during a "happy encounter" last Friday at the office of the LandBank of the Philippines in Malate, Manila, even asked for his autograph on a card signed by President Arroyo.

"I wrote to Acsa (that) it’s now time to forget the past. My best regards and best wishes," he said.

He and Ramirez also found "we have common relatives in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija."

LandBank president Gary Teves and bank employees witnessed the "happy encounter," during which Wycoco had apologized to Ramirez.

The President formally apologized to Ramirez during a luncheon at the Palace last Friday, a few days after the Office of the Ombudsman cleared her twice of any culpability and liability in the P431-million tax diversion scam.

Wycoco said he offered his apology to Ramirez to put a proper closure on the "Acsa Ramirez case."

"Our country is now suffering from a high emotional temperature and the NBI would like to contribute in bringing down this temperature by putting a proper closure on the Acsa Ramirez case," he said.

Wycoco said the NBI heeded the decision of the Ombudsman on Ramirez’s case. "Thus we would like to extend our apologies to Acsa Ramirez for all inconveniences and regrettable circumstances that have greatly upset her and her family," he said.

To prove the NBI’s sincerity, Wycoco has ordered lawyer Elfren Meneses, chief of the bureau’s Anti-Fraud Computer Crime Division, to withdraw the final motion for review on Ramirez’s case.

"We will pursue this (tax diversion scam) case with renewed vigor minus Ramirez," Wycoco said.

He added that "we have consistently stated from the beginning that this is not a crusade against Ramirez but against the perpetrators of the P431-million scam."

Malacañang, for its part, said it will not take any action against Wycoco since Ramirez understood he was merely doing his job.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that Ma. Lourdes Pineda, a director of the LandBank employees’ union, spoke on Ramirez’s behalf.

"We know that Director Wycoco is only doing his job. But there are times when he made us nervous," Bunye quoted Pineda as saying.

He added that "what is important for them, everything has been cleared already, the name of Acsa Ramirez was cleaned. She met with the President and was satisfied after this happened."

The President and Wycoco issued their respective apologies almost a year after Ramirez, then a cashier at the LandBank office in Binangonan, Rizal, was presented to the media as one of the suspects in the tax diversion scam.

Ramirez is now operations supervisor of the same LandBank branch. — With Marichu Villanueva