"It’s Major General Garcia who is having lapses. He can’t even remember that his wife is Clarita," Chief Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio suggested, striking out claims by defense lawyers that the wife had been operated on 13 times in the US, the last time in 1995.
"They should present that (Clarita’s brain tumor) in the defense evidence. Not now, not at this stage. The admission or statement made by Clarita in the US was voluntarily given, she was not under duress, not under investigation," he told The STAR.
Defense lawyer Jose Bautista, a former Makati City judge, denied insinuations that the tumor angle was just a legal strategy to raise doubts on her credibility since they could not disown the letter Clarita sent to US authorities.
"Nobody should play around with a person’s life. We don’t engage in trickery. This is factual," he stressed, adding that all of Clarita’s medical records are with Dr. Takanari Fukushima of the University of California in Los Angeles.
"She was sedated 13 times. Her last surgery was in 1995. She became diabetic. And sometimes she is forgetful. That’s a sign of Alzheimer’s disease. The tumor had to be removed to prevent blindness," Bautista told reporters in an interview.
Bautista nevertheless made assurances that in case the prosecutors doubt their claim, they are prepared to have their client examined by doctors in state-run hospitals. "I don’t see any problem with that. Some people are basically suspicious."
He also defended the timing of the disclosure on Clarita’s medical condition, noting that they were forced to do this in light of the indictment presented by the Ombudsman against the entire Garcia family, which includes sons Ian Carl, Juan Paolo, and Timothy Mark.
Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo sued the Garcias after investigators discovered the former comptroller amassed P303.2 million while he was still in active service. Marcelo said this constituted ill-gotten wealth as this had not been declared in his stated P3.2 million assets.