In a formal letter, Ma. Rowena Roldan and Rorela Villegas denied having been involved in transactions with Coastside Ventures, the shipment’s consignee.
Documents have linked Roldan and Villegas to the multibillion-peso ephedrine shipment because they were listed as officers of Coastside Ventures.
Villegas, reportedly the company president, allegedly signed a lease contract with J. Kings and Sons for the use of a warehouse where the shipment was to be stored.
The NBI verified Villegas’ participation in the ephedrine shipment because her signature appears on the Coastside Venture contract.
But Roldan and Villegas asserted that they had "no knowledge, participation or representation" in Coastside Ventures.
When the NBI asked Roldan why her picture appeared on Coastside Ventures’ application for incorporation, her counsel, Edgar Gica, said her photograph "may have been maneuvered by another person" and placed it there.
NBI-Central Visayas chief Reynaldo Esmeralda said there is a discrepancy in Villegas’ handwriting on the Coastside Ventures lease contract and the J. King and Sons document.
Esmeralda, however, said Roldan has to undergo examination to determine the veracity of her claim.
While Roldan’s NBI clearance was attached to the application for incorporation, the document nevertheless did not contain her signature nor her handwriting.
A third employee at the vice governor’s office, Joebert Cuesta, has also been linked to the ephedrine shipment. He was listed as chief executive officer of Coastside Ventures.
Meanwhile, Gov. Pablo Garcia dared Osmeña to undergo a lie detector test.
But Osmeña refused to take the challenge, saying it is a "bare trap" to humiliate him.
"Why would I submit myself to that humiliation again?" he said.
The vice governor, however, said he might submit to the test if Garcia, his daughter, Gwendolyn, fellow gubernatorial aspirant Celestino Martinez Jr. and Cebu City south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco would join him in the lie detector test. — Freeman News Service