Controversial ‘Jose Pidal’ takes Senate hot seat today

The man claiming he is the mysterious UnionBank and BPI Family Bank depositor named Jose Pidal takes the hot seat in the Senate today.

Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo will be grilled by opposition senators who don’t believe his story. He takes the witness stand exactly a week after older brother First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo appeared before the Senate and denied he is Jose Pidal as Sen. Panfilo Lacson claims.

On the eve of the First Gentleman’s brother’s testimony, Lacson’s camp announced it will submit this morning to the Blue Ribbon Committee and two other Senate panels voluminous pieces of evidence to support Lacson’s charges of corruption and money laundering against the President’s husband.

Lacson’s spokesman Lito Banayo also presented in a press conference photocopies of two checks issued by Jose Pidal — one from his UnionBank account and the other from his BPI Family Bank account.

"The BPI check for P85,000 (serial No. 0303086), payable to ‘cash and/or Alfredo Fornacio,’ and issued on May 4, 1998, shows that there was Jose Pidal account in BPI Family Bank (Perea St., Legaspi Village, Makati branch), contrary to claims of BPI Family Bank. It’s obvious that BPI Family Bank lied," Banayo said.

The UnionBank check (serial No. 3036651) for P635,000, issued on March 11, 1999, was payable to Velprint Corp., a printing company. A handwritten notation at the back of the check shows that it was for "300,000 poster calendars."

Banayo said the Blue Ribbon Committee, the committee on banks and the committee on constitutional amendments, and revision of laws and codes should invite the owner of Velprint Corp. and Fornacio to shed light on the Jose Pidal checks.

Iggy Arroyo’s lawyer, Antonio Zulueta, said Lacson’s presentation of facsimiles of two alleged Jose Pidal checks means nothing.

"We are not even saying that the facsimiles they presented to the media are real. For all we know, these may again be fabrications similar to the plethora of non-existent accounts that Senator Lacson enumerated in his Sept. 1 privileged speech," Zulueta said.

He added that presuming these photocopies were of real checks, these would actually serve his client’s claim that he indeed opened the BPI account in 1997 and the UnionBank account in 1998.

Iggy Arroyo claimed that he closed the BPI account in October 2000 and UnionBank account in August 2001.

Zulueta said the two checks presented by Banayo to the media, "assuming they are real, are for piddling sums and for innocent purposes dated five years ago. They are so far removed from the P260 million in several existing bank accounts that Lacson is trying to pin on the First Gentleman."

Zulueta said they had sent letters to the banks Lacson said harbored new Jose Pidal accounts. He noted that the lawyer representing the Toh family, who Lacson said were involved in the First Gentleman’s alleged money laundering activities, had already received formal replies from the banks denying the existence of the Pidal and the Toh family accounts.

Zulueta also said another piece of empirical evidence that refutes Lacson’s claims is the confirmation made by the Philippine National Police Crime Lab that Iggy Arroyo had indeed penned the Jose Pidal signatures in the two accounts.

"This is getting pathetic. Mr. Banayo said they will be releasing other bits of evidence soon. We say, come out with the whole caboodle and file your cases in court," he said.

Echoing an appeal from Sen. Edgardo Angara, chairman of the revision of laws and codes committee, last week, Banayo said the investigating panels, particularly the Blue Ribbon that is leading the investigation, should actively seek documents and witnesses.

He said when then Sen. Ernesto Maceda exposed the Public Estates Authority-Amari scam, Sen. Franklin Drilon, who was chairing the Blue Ribbon Committee, required the PEA to produce documents even before Maceda was asked to submit evidence in his possession.

"Now the Blue Ribbon Committee does nothing," he said. Committee chairman Sen. Joker Arroyo has said the committee won’t help Lacson prove his charges.

Banayo said Drilon, now Senate president, "has changed the rules and tradition by putting the burden of seeking evidence and witnesses solely on the accuser."

"But even without help from those who are supposed to act as investigators, we will provide the evidence to support Senator Lacson’s corruption and money laundering charges against First Gentleman Mike Arroyo," he added.

He also said at some point of the inquiry, the (Anti-Money Laundering Council AMLC) chaired by Bangko Sentral Govenor Rafael Buenaventura should take the initiative and look into possible violations of the Anti-Money Laundering Law by the President’s husband, his brother Iggy and by banks holding the Jose Pidal accounts.

He reminded Buenaventura that nations waging a global campaign against money laundering are watching how the Philippines enforces its version of the anti-money laundering legislation.

"The AMLC and/or the Bangko Sentral should soon come in to protect the integrity of the banking system, the economy and the nation as a whole. Remember that we are still in the list of countries deemed not cooperating in the war against dirty money," he said.

Responding to question, Banayo said the evidence that Lacson’s chief of staff will present to the investigating committees this morning includes photocopies of bank statements and checks.

He said Lacson is not under obligation to produce the originals.

Besides the Jose Pidal accounts, Iggy Arroyo is expected to be asked about two San Francisco, California buildings that his brother, Jose Miguel Arroyo and then Sen. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, purchased in 1992 for $5.3 million.

When the properties were discovered in 1998, the Arroyo couple claimed that they bought the buildings and held them in trust for Ignacio Arroyo.

During his testimony before the Senate last Tuesday, the First Gentleman was peppered with questions about the buildings.

He told senators that they should instead ask his brother about them.

Iggy Arroyo would be asked about his financial capacity and his tax payments. Lacson has claimed that the President’s brother-in-law paid no more than P14,000 a year in income tax between 1996 and 1998, lower than what a salaried worker pays.

Angara said in 1992-1994, Iggy Arroyo paid about P9,000.

Palace keeps distance

Malacañang denied involvement yesterday in the reportedly growing clamor to end the ongoing Senate investigation into allegations that the First Gentleman engaged in money laundering activities.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the probe into Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s accusations against the First Gentleman "is purely (part of the) internal affairs of the Senate.

"Our only concern is if these accusations (are) directly leveled at the President and one of them is the P1.3 million check that supposedly passed through the Office of the President," Bunye said.

However, he said this accusation has been sufficiently answered by Malacañang and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), which said no such check was issued.

Bunye also reiterated the Palace’s earlier statements that the President would rather let her husband answer all the accusations against him on his own. Arroyo is a lawyer by profession.

He also said that Lacson has yet to come out with solid evidence to prove all his accusations against the First Gentleman.

"We think these (accusations) are just pure threat and there is nothing for the administration to worry about," Bunye said. — With Mayen Jaymalin