TIRADES: SENATE HEARINGS 'VALUELESS'-MIRIAM; PING: INSULT TO FELLOW SENATORS
MANILA, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011 (STAR) By Christina Mendez - Sen. Panfilo Lacson refused to dignify yesterday attacks by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who has described the Senate hearings on the alleged anomalies during the past Arroyo administration as "valueless."
"Nobody dignifies her insults to her fellow senators. Nobody dignifies her insults to the members of the Supreme Court and members of the Lower House. And now no one dignifies her insults. I an one of those who won't dignify," Lacson said in Filipino when asked to react to Santiago's tirades against her fellow senators actively participating in Senate probes.
Santiago said the Senate probes were "useless" and "valueless" because they have become avenues for self-advertisement by some senators.
She noted that committee reports generated in Senate inquiries remain recommendatory in nature, and concerned agencies such as the Ombudsman and Department of Justice may or may not act on them.
Lacson spearheaded the exposés on the alleged anomaly in the sale of two pre-owned helicopters to the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2009, linking former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to the deal.
As far as the Senate is concerned, Lacson said he and his colleagues are merely doing their jobs and oversight function as lawmakers.
"Whatever criticisms we get, in our view, we are just doing what is right to reveal the anomalies of the past and what comes out today. Our job entails oversight function and we have the right to question these kinds of anomalies," he said over dwIZ radio.
Lacson added that it is within the rights of LTA bookkeeper Rowena del Rosario to pursue her complaint against the Senate for detaining her last week for evading questions on the Senate probe on the PNP choppers.
Although a non-lawyer, the former chief of police expressed belief that the Senate was on solid legal ground when it ordered Del Rosario's detention on Monday last week.
Del Rosario's camp is said to be pursuing the case against her arrest and detention in the Senate even after she was freed by the chamber last week. He lawyers said they want the court to decide squarely on the issue.
Senators detained Del Rosario last Monday after she failed to satisfy members of the Blue Ribbon committee investigating the allegedly anomalous sale of second-hand helicopters to the PNP.
She claimed she was working as bookkeeper of Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo when the family-owned LTA Inc. supposedly rented five helicopters from Lionair Inc., two of which were subsequently sold as brand-new to the PNP.
The committee decided to free del Rosario last Thursday.
FROM THE DAILY TRIBUNE
Ping wants AMLC to probe 2 HK-based 'dummy' firms By Angie M. Rosales
09/01/2011
Despite his lack of any solid evidence to back up his allegations, Sen. Panfilo Lacson once again disclosed to reporters the probability of laundered money estimated at tens of millions of dollars to some government officials, allegedly on anomalies surrounding the construction of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.
Even as Lacson admitted that the information he has on "money laundering" is raw, he claimed that these millions were coursed through two Hong Kong-based dummy corporations which firms, he said, are now the subject of a paper trail by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
The Lacson-claimed dummy corporations, registered in the
British Virgin Islands, were alleged to have been in receipt of remittances ranging from $800,000 to as much as $2 million per transaction, at one point.
But the matter of the money involved ending up in the hands of particular personalities in the government is now also being established by the council, the senator said, adding that he wasn't certain whether the money was part of an extortion racket.
It is common knowledge that Lacson is out to get the Arroyos, both the former president and her husband, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Mike" Arroyo, with Lacson coming with many exposes linking the Arroyos.
Lacson yesterday told reporters he has referred the "raw" information to the AMLC recently, after receiving documents that identified the said shell companies as Jetstream Pacific Ltd. International and Mainland Global Ltd.
"I have secured some documents, on two (alleged) shell corporations registered with the BVI (British Virgin Islands) where a number of remittances involving huge amounts of money, there was $1 million; $894,000. The (operations of the) companies started almost the same time, it opened, registered almost in the same period and were dissolved at the same time.
"So apparently, the corporations were registered only to receive remittances and after serving the purpose, they closed the corporation," he said during an interview, emerging from a budget hearing of the finance committee.
But Tribune sources close to some AMLC officers told the Tribune also yesterday that the same issues of the alleged dummy corporations, Jetstream Pacific Ltd and International and Mainland Global Ltd., were already investigated by the AMLC at a time when the Senate held hearings on this same matter. The AMLC reportedly found nothing unusual about these corporations.
Lacson disclosed that while the alleged front companies were registered in Europe, they purportedly operated in Hong Kong for almost three years as culled from the documents Lacson said he saw which showed the transactions or remittances that took place between 2001 to 2004.
The senator expressed strong suspicions that these could have been involved in the controversy on the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco) deal in undertaking the said airport terminal.
"The period involved, 2001 to 2004, was the height of the (issue of the) Piatco anomaly. This seems to have a connection with the Piatco anomaly (in the construction of) Terminal 3. I saw the large amounts of remittances. There were at least two remittances - $1 million and at least two (others) one involving $894,000 and $895,000 and then what caught my attention was, it was registered and dissolved almost the same time. Obviously, there was no other purpose in operating these companies but only (allegedly) served to receive remittances from the Philippines," he said.
"It seems to me that the transactions were involved with Piatco then or it could have been with that the transaction was entered into at that time," Lacson added.
It can be recalled that Piatco was engaged in a tie-up with a German investor, Fraport AG (Fraport) in building and operating of the $350 million Terminal 3.
The Senate blue ribbon committee under the chairmanship then of Sen. Joker Arroyo conducted several public hearings sometime in 2003 due to charges of the contract being allegedly onerous.
But Lacson is not satisfied with the results of the Senate probe conducted by Arroyo.
What he wants to uncover, he said, is where the remittances ended up, which he said is now the task of the AMLC.
"I gave a copy (of the documents) to the executive director of AMLC (Vicente Aquino), because they have the capability to find out, thresh out the history of the remittances and history of the accounts," he said.
When asked which government personalities are involved, Lacson did not identify any, merely saying that there were names encountered by him, based on the documents in his possession, although he admitted that it is difficult to establish who are the real incorporators since it was supposedly BVI-registered corporations.
"I referred all of the information to the AMLC hoping it can conduct an investigation on the accounts because that's precisely its mandate. The AMLC can trace whose accounts they were and that (kind of) information is what we want to find out," he said.
Lacson said he will continue to coordinate with AMLC but they cannot make public the ongoing investigation on this matter.
He said there are names but the difficulty would be in getting these names since even a single person may register a corporation. One doesn't need five people to register a corporation.
The senator said this was the same tack he took when he approached the AMLC to conduct an investigation on the matter of trhe controversial helicopters which Lacson insists was bought by Mike Arroyo and sold two used helicopters as brand-new and at an overprice.
He said he gave the AMLC the accounts pertaining to the $500 thousand that was remitted for the Robinson Helicopters. AMLC can trace whose account it was from here the $500 thousand came.
"It is obvious from our investigation that the money came from Mike Arroyo. So in this way, we also want to know about this information, hinting that the said amounts from the alleged dummy firms went to Mike Arroyo.
He also stressed that he passed on the information he had on the P150 million check that went into the joint account of Cesar Mancao and Teresa Abas. "This information I passed on to the AMLC as I had the document. Executive Director Aquino informed me they are already conducting an investigation on those accounts.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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