Estrada maintained Boeing, Airbus bank accounts — Joker

He also had a fascination for airplanes.

Deposed President Joseph Estrada allegedly maintained several bank accounts named after Boeing and Airbus jet planes.

Makati Rep. Joker Arroyo, a member of the House panel that prosecuted Estrada, told reporters yesterday that had the "now famous" 11 senator-judges allowed the presentation of bank records as evidence, the nation would have known that the former President maintained numerous accounts under false names, including airplane models.

He said some of the bank deposits of Estrada and his mistresses were denominated as 747, 737 and 727, which are types of Boeing planes, and A-300, A-310, A-320, and A-330, which are Airbus models.

These are in addition to the bank accounts the fallen leader kept under the name Jose Velarde, Jose Marcelo and Kelvin Garcia, he said.

"He even has a checking account which he signs as Three One Eight in letters," said Arroyo.

Prosecutors have discovered that Estrada’s Velarde account in one branch alone of Equitable-PCIBank held as much as P3.23 billion. This branch is the one located at the luxurious Pacific Star building in Makati City, whose manager is Beatriz Bagsit, who sits in the Erap Muslim Youth Foundation.

According to testimonies given to the Senate, the foundation received P200 million in illegal gambling money from presidential accuser Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson of Ilocos Sur.

Arroyo, in tandem with Rep. Oscar Moreno (Lakas, Misamis Oriental), was the one who exposed the Velarde account.

He gave the public a glimpse of the magnitude of the Velarde deposits on Day One of the impeachment trial when he revealed that the P142 million used to purchase "Boracay" came from the Equitable account.

"Boracay," in New Manila, Quezon City, is one of several mansions allegedly owned by Estrada and his mistresses. It is said to be worth at least P200 million.

The Makati lawmaker asserted on the first day of the impeachment trial that Velarde is Estrada. His assertion was later supported by Equitable senior vice president Clarissa Ocampo, who testified that on Feb. 4, 2000, she saw then President Estrada sign bank documents as Jose Velarde.

The documents included an investment management agreement covering a P500-million loan to presidential friend William Gatchalian, the so-called "Plastics King."

Arroyo said the other Estrada accounts maintained "in almost all banks in the country are a lot bigger than P3.3 billion."

"The bank accounts of Laarni Enriquez, Guia Gomez and Joy Melendrez in various banks run to hundreds of millions of pesos," he said.

He said presidential friends and cronies like Dante Tan, Lucio Co, Jaime and Abby Dichaves, contractor Antonio Evangelista, Mark Jimenez, and Ramon Lee deposited millions in Estrada’s accounts.

"But Erap prevented these huge deposits from being exposed through a scripted 11-10 vote in the Senate impeachment court," he stressed.

The now notorious vote prevented prosecutors from opening the second Equitable envelope which is believed to contain the records of Velarde’s P3.23-billion account in the Pacific Star branch of Equitable-PCI bank.

"That vote foreclosed the production of other bank records which are even more potentially damaging and embarrassing to Mr. Estrada," said Arroyo.

He revealed that at the time the 11 senators decided to keep the second envelope sealed, the prosecution had readied more than 150 requests for subpoenas for bank records relating to the Estrada accounts.

He said the prosecution would soon turn over its documents to the private prosecutors who are pushing plunder cases and other charges against the deposed President.

He said Estrada should not be allowed to leave the country so he can face these cases.