First Gentleman: My critics want to kill me

MANILA, Philippines - Embattled First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo yesterday accused his critics of trying to kill him by linking him to the bid rigging anomaly on World Bank-funded road contracts.

Mr. Arroyo, who underwent delicate open heart surgery in 2006, did not appear before the Senate inquiry yesterday upon his doctors’ advice but sent his lawyer Ruy Rondain and personal physician to answer questions from senators.

“Up to now, there is nothing against me, there’s no evidence, everything is hearsay, there’s no case that has ever prospered against me, no one has ever filed any case in the civil courts,” Mr. Arroyo said.

He said the accusations linking him to various irregularities had caused him stress and led to his delicate medical condition.

Doctors said Mr. Arroyo might get stressed if he appears before a congressional inquiry.

“They (critics) want to kill me but I don’t want to die yet,” he told reporters after emerging from his regular twice-weekly therapy at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.

Cardiologist Dr. Antonio Sibulo testified before the Senate that appearing before the grueling inquiry could endanger Mr. Arroyo’s medical condition.

He said Mr. Arroyo’s present health status might worsen if he will not avoid “mentally stressful” activities like appearing before a congressional grilling.

“We cannot in good conscience allow him (Arroyo) to assume that risk for whatever consequence that may ensue from the Senate hearing,” Sibulo said in a letter he submitted to committee chair Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

He said the acceptable mode for Mr. Arroyo is to submit a written deposition with no face-to-face interrogation by the senators.

“A written deposition could be a reasonable situation,” Sibulo said.

Rondain, on the other hand, formally submitted before the panel the statement of the First Gentleman.

Mr. Arroyo denied the allegations that he received P70 million in cash from a contractor as his supposed commission for facilitating a government road construction deal.

The contractor was Eduardo de Luna, owner of E.C de Luna Construction Corp. that was among the firms blacklisted by the World Bank.

Mr. Arroyo also denied a meeting with Japanese contractor Tomatu Suzuka to discuss bribe money.

He said the reports based on the WB report that is the subject of the congressional investigation were all “based on hearsay and bereft of evidentiary value.”

The presidential husband also disowned the appointments book presented by Sen. Panfilo Lacson showing his supposed connection with De Luna.

Mr. Arroyo claimed he always enters his schedules personally in an electronic calendar.

A waste of time

Santiago and the rest of the members of the panel remained unconvinced. She also described yesterday’s hearing on the issue as a waste of time, pointing out that there was no concrete evidence that came up since the World Bank still refused to provide the Senate with its controversial report detailing the alleged bribery and collusive practices that led the bank to blacklist eight companies and implicate the First Gentleman and other officials.

Santiago said the committee merely received blanket denials.

Former Surigao del Sur congressman Prospero Pichay and brothers Jerome and Jacinto Paras, former representatives of Negros Oriental; former Public Works and Highways secretary Florante Soriquez, DPWH Assistant Director Augusto “Tito” Miranda along with the other contractors led by De Luna and Gerardo Pancho appeared before the panel and claimed they were not aware of the bribery and collusion.

Engineer Huillo “Boy” Belleza, DPWH-Region 4-A assistant regional director, came but said he was not the one referred to in the excerpts of the WB report.

Soriquez and Pancho admitted knowing witness Noelito Policarpio, who was among the witnesses interviewed by the WB revealing a cartel among contractors and said they needed politicians to win in a bidding.

Pancho said they had a joint venture with Policarpio but denied being involved in collusion.

De Luna, for his part, even challenged critics to undergo lie detector test.

Senators said Mr. Arroyo is not yet off the hook. Santiago said it was not enough for Mr. Arroyo to submit a written comprehensive denial before the Senate.

“We shall depose, meaning we shall send written questions to (Mr. Arroyo), immediately after the senators are given a chance to read the so-called NRIMP-1-Evidence File to be submitted by the Ombudsman,” she said, referring to the National Roads Improvement and Management Program 1 of the WB.

“After the senators read this latest file, then we shall hold an executive session to determine whether there is legal ground to further examine the FG (First Gentleman) and other implicated persons,” Santiago said.

Lacson, for his part, said the only problem was that the Office of the Ombudsman was not aggressive enough to pursue an investigation against Mr. Arroyo.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said insofar as the investigation was concerned, “it’s not a dead end and it will really depend on what is in the hands of the Ombudsman.”

“But if that folder in the hands of the Ombudsman does not have any specifics, we have a problem. (However,) I don’t think anyone, of those mentioned, is off the hook. If it’s unfair to say that all the biddings in our country are rigged, it’s also unfair to say that no anomaly is happening,” Cayetano told reporters.

“There has to be a way, the Senate has to find a way to make accountable the allies and family members of the President because they cannot do this without the go signal from the one sitting in power. I’m not saying that WB did not do a good job in convincing us or giving us a good lead. I also don’t believe that WB will do this for no good reason,” Cayetano said.

Electronic evidence

Santiago cited WB document called Notice of Judicial Sanctions Proceedings Part 2 that implicated Mr. Arroyo and other personalities in the scandal.

In a PowerPoint presentation, Santiago explained that under the Rules on Electronic Evidence, a computer printout such as the Notice of Sanctions Proceedings is admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule, but only after it is authenticated.

“Many concerned citizens are agog over this Notice. But it has to be authenticated, meaning, that the custodian of the original document should testify that it is a correct copy of the original,” she said.

Santiago read out excerpts from the Notice, which was posted on the Internet, consisting of certain allegations made against the implicated persons. “Before we can officially admit this Notice, first the senators have to be given evidence showing its integrity and reliability,” she said, citing the Rules on Electronic Evidence.

Santiago included in her presentation excerpts from the article “WB Report: Mixed of Fact, Innuendo,” written by Malou Mangahas of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ).

“Even the PCIJ calls the Notice posted on the Internet as conflicting and consisting of raw information, some of which are good but some of which are bad,” Santiago said.

She agreed with the PCIJ article that the Notice was just a narration of alleged testimonies of witnesses, without any effort on the part of WB to corroborate the testimonies or even to comment on their reliability. – Paolo Romero, Aurea Calica, Jose Rodel Clapano