Plunder case vs Nani still possible — Ombudsman

Former justice secretary Hernando Perez may yet face plunder charges if his accuser former congressman Mark Jimenez provides enough evidence, a prosecutor of the Office of the Ombudsman said yesterday.

"There must be additional new and relevant evidence presented to warrant prosecution for plunder," Ombudsman Assistant Prosecutor Marina Demeteria said.

In his complaint before the Ombudsman in 2000, Jimenez said Perez should be tried for plunder for amassing around P100 million, which was roughly equivalent to the $2 million allegedly extorted from him, based on the prevailing peso-dollar exchange rate at the time.

For an official to be charged with plunder, there must be sufficient evidence that he had illegally acquired at least P50 million.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez earlier indicted Perez only for graft, extortion, and falsification of public documents in connection with Jimenez’s allegations that the former justice secretary extorted $2 million from him. Indicted with him were his wife Rosario, brother-in-law Ramon Arceo, and business associate Ernest Escaler.

Jimenez said the alleged payoff was in exchange for easing the pressure on him to implicate prominent members of the Estrada administration in the plunder case against the deposed president.

But Estrada and his supporters said the $2 million was a Jimenez-brokered bribe from Argentine firm Industrias Metallurgicas Perscarmona SA (IMPSA), which wanted to bag the build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer contract for the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan hydroelectric plant.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said some $14 million was actually involved.

The former Manila congressman filed cases of plunder and extortion against Perez with the Ombudsman in 2000. He said the former justice chief verbally humiliated him in front of his wife and a son at his own home in Forbes Park, Makati after he refused to sign damaging affidavits against some cronies of Estrada.

Assistant Ombudsman Mark Jalandoni said earlier plunder was ruled out because there was only one incident of illegal acquisition of wealth involving Perez.

The Ombudsman is still reviewing the motion for reconsideration filed by Perez.

The Ombudsman has 15 days to decide on Perez’s motion, which was filed on Jan. 11, Overall Assistant Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro said.

In his 44-page memorandum for reconsideration, Perez, through his lawyers from the Balgos and Perez law firm, assailed the Ombudsman’s alleged foot-dragging in the case.

"According to her, there was delay because of the complexities of the issues raised and because of ‘difficulty of obtaining documents.’ The issues became complicated because the Ombudsman went out of her way and beyond her role in a preliminary investigation. She took it upon herself to prove what the complainant Mario B. Crespo aka Mark Jimenez failed to do," Perez said in the memorandum.

"She became not only the investigator, but also the prosecutor, a role foreign to her in a preliminary investigation. Yet, having made the issues complicated, she nevertheless would allow only five days for the respondents herein to seek for a reconsideration," Perez said.

But some quarters believe Gutierrez was soft on Perez because she failed to indict him for plunder. Although no longer in the Cabinet, Perez is still a known ally of President Arroyo.

The controversy over the alleged lenient treatment of Perez prompted Lacson and Sen. Franklin Drilon to call for a new Senate investigation of the case.

Lacson stressed the inquiry that he proposed would center on the alleged $14-million IMPSA bribe. Jimenez has repeatedly claimed that his case against Perez has nothing to do with the IMPSA deal.

Lacson said his call for the Senate Blue Ribbon committee in 2002 to investigate the alleged IMPSA bribery did not take off.

But a similar resolution filed later by other senators sparked an inquiry into the issue by the committee on energy.

Lacson said the committee on government corporations and public enterprises, then chaired by Sen. John Osmeña, tried unsuccessfully to establish a paper trail of the bribe money from the Hong Kong Coutts Bank account of Escaler to the Swiss accounts of Perez, his wife, and brother-in-law.

Swiss authorities have agreed to provide the Philippine government with pertinent documents, but they have to course them through Hong Kong because the Philippines has no Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with Switzerland.

Lacson said that aside from Estrada, Perez, and Jimenez, other individuals who could shed light on the alleged $14-million payoff are former Energy secretary Mario Tiaoqui, former Justice secretary Artemio Tuquero and incumbent Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.

He said a representative from Coutts Bank should also be invited.

He said he hopes the Blue Ribbon committee, chaired by Sen. Joker Arroyo, will investigate the alleged bribery. Earlier, Senator Arroyo said there might not be enough time for the current Senate to launch an investigation.