"I think Senator Lacson was scraping the bottom of the barrel when he was trying to (provide) evidence (to prove) his charges. He went to transactions between private persons not involved in government funds," the President said.
Mrs. Arroyo said the transactions "took place before I became president, on a bank account that was closed even before I became president."
"Where is the corruption when no public funds were ever involved in any of those few transactions that could be accepted as having taken place? Sino ang kriminal? Sino ang nag-falsify? (Who is the criminal? Who falsified)?" the President asked.
She said that when Lacson’s accusations "did not seem to be able to fly legally, he went on to manufacture evidence."
"Where are the eyewitnesses? Where are the originals? Where is the crime?" the President asked journalists during a news conference at Clark Field in her home province of Pampanga after she announced that she will run in the 2004 presidential elections.
It was the first time the President spoke on the controversy that hugged newspaper headlines for over six weeks.
"He was criticized for six weeks," the President said in Filipino. "Maybe I can now air my opinion because I didn’t meddle (in the matter)," Mrs. Arroyo said.
"I know that my running also means my aggravation. It would have been easier for me to rest but you all saw that I did not meddle in his case," she said when asked if the scandal could affect her candidacy.
"Sinumang miyembro ng aking angkan na mapatunayang nagkasala ay kailangan magdusa. Wala sa aking pamilyang personal o opisal ang ligtas mula sa batas (Any member of my family who is proven to have erred must be punished. No one in my family, personal or official, is exempt from the law)," she said.
Meantime, Lacson, who had earlier announced his presidential candidacy, said he has gathered more evidence against the First Gentleman and promised to present them in a privilege speech tomorrow.
It was Mrs. Arroyo’s first comment on the controversy surrounding her husband since Lacson accused the First Gentleman of maintaining bank accounts under the alias Jose Pidal for alleged money laundering activities on Aug. 18.
The First Gentleman’s younger brother, businessman Ignacio Arroyo, refuted Lacson’s claims and said he opened the bank accounts using the alias Jose Pidal for security reasons but closed them by August 2001 before the effectivity of the anti-money laundering law, which prohibits bank accounts under psuedonyms.
The First Gentleman is now in the United Arab Emirates where he proceeded after the presidential trip to the United States and Europe last week.
In the UAE, he the First Gentleman is expected to arrange for the release and repatriation of 23 Filipino seamen, who have been in jail for almost three years.
The seamen were duped by their employer into signing bank loans and were sentenced to four months’ imprisonment. However, the National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah filed another case against the seamen to recover unpaid loans totaling 1.8 million dirhams (P27 million).
The seamen, unable to pay back the loans, remained in jail.
Mr. Arroyo was accompanied by Ambassador Amable Aguiluz V, special envoy to the Gulf Cooperation Council, who was able to secure an agreement with the Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah to allow the release of the seamen after payment of 600,000 dirhams (P9 million) to emirate’s government.
The First Gentleman raised 500,000 dirhams (P7.5 million) through a fund-raising campaign and Aguiluz contributed 100,000 dirhams (P1.5 million) to secure the release of the 23 jailed seamen. — Marichu Villanueva, Ding Cervantes