Is the next ‘mystery’ witness ex-Finance Secretary Ed Espiritu? - BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven

Okay. So it’s just an "educated" guess. But the fact that the impeachment trial prosecutors have been bragging that they’ve got in reserve a "mystery witness" all set to expose a bigger scandal than that imputed in the Clarissa Ocampo testimony has fueled speculation that former Finance Secretary Ed Espiritu, who was "fired" by Erap last year, might be sprung on the Senate in January.

The guessing game was accelerated by a banner headline in the Manila Standard yesterday which declared: Another Bank Submits Envelope. The newspaper article alleged that, "following the lead of Equitable PCIBank", another bank has volunteered to submit documents that may be "relevant or material" to the ongoing impeachment trial. The story maintained that the United Overseas Bank (UOB), formerly Westmont Bank (controlled by Ed Espiritu, whose son Ed Espiritu Jr. had assumed the bank presidency after dad joined the Cabinet), was the bank that had submitted the "second" envelope.

For many years, Espiritu — long before he even became chairman of the Philippine National Bank during the incumbency of former President Corazon C. Aquino — had been very close to House Prosecutor Rep. Joker Arroyo (Makati). So he’s the logical "suspect" in the guessing game now ongoing.

Of course, the gossips may turn out to be dead wrong. But their reasoning is convincing: When a fellow goes from being Finance Secretary to, among other things, an operator of Jollibee hamburger joints in California (very lucrative, though this business may be) he’s not bound to nurse very affectionate feelings for his former boss, Mr. Estrada. On second thought, Ed Espiritu was not fired by the President. Estrada "accepted" his resignation, and, as soon as Espiritu was in the United States, the former Finance chief began hitting Estrada and loudly decrying widespread "graft and corruption" in the Erap administration. So, long before "Chavit" Singson, Espiritu was another ex-friend who started banging away at the now hard-pressed Chief Executive. But, of course, Erap and Ed were never "drinking buddies."

And what about the Atong Ang connection? It was recalled yesterday that the UOB (Westmont) had earlier disclosed records concerning a P90 million deposit of Eleuterio Tan (a.k.a. Victor Jose Tan Uy) and Delia Rajas, alleged employees of the controversial Mr. Ang.

Pardon my spelling. But don’t the Chinese refer to Chinese New Year "gifts" in the form of cash (in those familiar lai see "red" envelopes) as angpao? That P90 million certainly wasn’t siopao. The coming New Year, according to their calendar, is The Year of the Snake. It’s supposed to be a good sign. On the other hand, what we’re beginning to see is a snake pit.

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When I was covering Pakistan and the Middle East, a fact further reinforced during three visits to Turkey, I learned that many Muslims paint the borders of their windows blue, or hang out "blue" symbols, as a means of protection against what they refer to as The Evil Eye. For the same reason, they refrain from praising the good looks of their children or crowing about family fortune, in order not to attract — yep, you guessed it – The Evil Eye. (One of the no-no’s, naturally, is attracting the evil eye of envy, which afflicts Christian communities and those of other religions, as well.)

Thus it was with some unease that I read, all over the newspapers (almost all of them), the report emanating from Vice Consul Zaldy Patron of the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta that a Christmas Midnight Mass sponsored by the Embassy in its premises in the exclusive Menteng district in central Jakarta (which is the diplomatic enclave in Indonesia’s capital) had saved Filipinos working there from being injured or killed when terrorists exploded 18 bombs or explosive devices in Catholic churches or parochial residences as midnight Masses were being celebrated in nine cities and towns (such as Jakarta, Bandung in the hills of West Java, and the capital town Mataram on Lombok island, right next to Bali).

According to the Embassy, 2,200 out of the 3,500 Filipinos in Indonesia live in Jakarta, although most of them had gone home to the Philippines for the holidays. The fact that the Embassy had invited the remaining members of the Filipino community to Mass in the Embassy compound, the vice consul cheerfully asserted, had, most likely, "saved" them from harm, when the blasts shook other Christian churches, including the Catholic Cathedral in Jakarta itself, some eight kilometers away from the Embassy. In the series of terrorist bombings, 15 people were killed and more than 100 injured, most of them seriously.

I think it’s dangerous for our Embassy officials to crow about this "saving" of Filipino lives. For, as you can figure out for yourselves, this attracts the Evil Eye. The extremists who triggered those attacks will certainly "pick up" on this claim and vow to teach the Christian Filipinos a lesson the "next time around." As yesterday’s newspaper accounts recalled, in fact, Philippine Ambassador Leonides Caday, 75, was badly wounded when a potent car bomb was electronically detonated just as his car was entering his nearby residence in the same district, not far away, last August 1. His Mercedes Benz was a total wreck, but Caday and his driver – though badly injured – survived the assassination attempt. Less lucky were two bystanders, including a vendor, who died instantly, and 20 others who were seriously injured on the same pavement. (Caday, a career diplomat, is remembered as the envoy who issued a passport to tycoon and former Governor Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco at a time when he was "banned" by the Cory government.)

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid immediately reacted to the Monday night bombings by fielding 14,000 policemen and soldiers to guard churches and mosques, and patrol Jakarta’s troubleprone areas, declaring that the terrorists were out to destabilize his administration.

Methinks it’s more sinister than that. For the previous three years, a wave of Islamic fundamentalist fanaticism has swept a formerly "more tolerant" Indonesia where 87 percent of the 200.8 million Indonesians are Muslim. The militant Muslims, abetted in many places by the ABRI (the armed forces) and the paramilitary police, have been attacking Christians and Christian churches. Massacres and burnings have escalated in the past year and a half — and the worst, I fear, is yet to come.

The midnight Mass bombings, incidentally, coincided with the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan (last Tuesday) and the start of the two-day feast of Eid al Fitr (the Islamic approximation of "Easter"). So, the midnight Mass bombings in nine cities and municipalities take on an added, and harrowing significance.

"Gus Dur", as the Indonesian President is called by most people there, must also have been concerned about his own safety –because, although known for his personal courage, he abruptly cancelled his own public participation in last Tuesday’s Eid al Fitr ceremony.

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THE ROVING EYE. . . A highranking banker, who by necessity asked to remain anonymous, posed an interesting question yesterday. He asked this writer, after hearing Ambassador Ernie Maceda’s explanation about the questioned P1.2-billion "Jose Velarde" account (which included the P500 million "loaned" to the Wellex Group) that the large sum was a "pooled investment", not belonging to a single individual: How is it possible that a "pooled investment" was deposited in a savings account? That’s for "Jose Velarde" to answer, whoever he is.