Blanquita Pelaez

LATEST UPDATE: Blanquita Pelaez says Mike Defensor is the brains behind filing of phony case vs Erap.

Ah, the administration attack dog/swindler is back in the news again. I've posted re her before here and here.

Unang kong narinig yung handcuffs deal ni Blanquita Pelaez noong 1999, when Miriam Defensor Santiago (still angry at erap because she lost the 1998 prez elections to a dropout) criticized this shady handcuffs deal entered by then DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno (now with the Arroyo admin).

MIRIAM SAYS “PRETTY WOMAN” BEHIND HANDCUFFS DEAL?
10 June 1999

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said the allegedly illegal P15 million supplemental contract for handcuffs with Pelaez Enterprises signed by DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno reportedly involved what she called a “pretty woman.”

“The supplemental contract, which is grossly disadvantageous to the government, was reportedly pushed by the mother of a pretty woman. Both women are in show business,” she said.

Santiago yesterday (10 June) also questioned the contract, on the additional ground that on 6 May 1997, PNP chief superintendent Jose Andaya blacklisted Pelaez, and revoked its certificate of accreditation.

PNP allegedly blacklisted Pelaez for failing to deliver 150,368 pieces of ammunition, even after withdrawing the payment of US $41,266.33 from the letter of credit.

But although PNP had already blacklisted Pelaez, still Puno went ahead and signed a supplemental contract with Pelaez for the delivery of 31,262 pairs of handcuffs, “exclusive of customs duties, taxes and VAT.”

The supplemental contract amended the original contract, which provided for delivery “inclusive of customs duties, taxes, and VAT.”

Santiago said the supplemental contract raised the price of the handcuffs, and thus became grossly disadvantageous to the government.

Under the supplemental contract signed by Puno, the PNP advanced the sum of $513,000 for the letter of credit.

Subsequently, the Bureau of Customs seized and confiscated the handcuffs, because Pelaez failed to pay customs duties.

Santiago said DILG and PNP officials should be held responsible for the sum of $513,000 which the PNP lost.

The senator added that the shipment was also illegal, on the added ground that while the PNP called for stainless steel handcuffs, Pelaez imported nickel-plated handcuffs, which are 65 percent cheaper.

Santiago refused to give the names of the two women who allegedly lobbied for the contract, but urged reporters to investigate the tip reportedly given to her by a phone caller.

“My charges are based on official documents. The story of the pretty woman is only a tip that I cannot verify,” she said

Pinuri pa nga si Miriam ni Amando Doronila for her expose on the Puno-Pelaez handcuffs scam eh.

“Miriam has revived the glory days of the Senate as the watchdog of administration venalities.”
“Miriam has also shown in the Puno exposes that she is not a Estrada stooge...In exposing Puno, Miriam has rediscovered the power of inquiry of the Senate and has become the symbol of this rediscovery at a time when the legislature is so intimidated by the President’s popularity that it does not stand up to him.”
“Miriam has found her mark---as catalyst of the reassertion by the Senate of its function as a chamber of inquiry into administration venalities.”
---Amando Doronila, Inquirer
“Miriam finds her mark”

So tama yung ginawa ni Lacson, because:

The original contract required Pelaez to pay the Customs duties, Lacson said. But during the Estrada administration, the interior secretary, Ronaldo Puno, revised the contract, making the PNP—then under Roberto Lastimoso—pay the Customs fees.

Puno is now allied with the administration Kampi Party.

“I cannot honor Puno’s memo. If I did, I would be held liable for graft and the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan would have me jailed because the amended contract would be grossly disadvantageous to the government. I was protecting the interest of the Republic of the Philippines,” Lacson said.

Tama. Overpriced na kasi yung revised contract na pinakulo ni dating DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno eh. Lugi ang gobyerno at taxpayers diyan.

Read this nung nakuryente ang PDI sa report nila on Blanquita Pelaez and Ping Lacson. And this one too. Ito pa.

Some pro-Arroyo PEx poster claimed:

Hindi ba nag-simula itong case na ito noong 2001. I doubt the Administration has anything to do with it.

WRONG! Blanquita Pelaez was part of victor corpus' "intelligence" team to "beat Lacson" kuno that went to the US to dig for "evidence" against the Senator.

Katulad rin ng pagbayad ni Mike Arroyo ng P3-Mil kay Rosebud (read this too), Blanquita was paid P9-Million as "agent fee" for giving "tips" on Lacson's "billion" dollar bank accounts.

Here's the report:

Aside from the two recommendations, the report also called for an inquiry by the Senate blue ribbon committee on the alleged payment of P9 million in "agent's fee" to Blanquita Pelaez for the "trip" on the supposed Lacson overseas accounts.

Pelaez, a PNP supply contractor blacklisted by Lacson, allegedly acted as informer of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines team in its month-long probe in the United States. She reportedly accompanied the ISAFP team to the US.

A post-operation report submitted by Chan to Corpus was paid P9 million for giving the ISAFP team the "tip" that Lacson maintains 18 accounts in various banks abroad.

Heh. Si blanquita pala ang nagbigay ng "tip" na may "18 accounts" in various banks abroad si Lacson. LMAO!

Nagyabang pa si Pelaez dati:

"Kalkalin ko na ngayon ang mga bank statement niya (I will now look for all his bank statements). All these statements will come out now," Pelaez told GMA 7.

but PDI, whose reporter was part of Victor Corpus team that went to the US, and the newspaper that first broke the story on Lacson "hidden bank account" back in 2001, made a grudging admission 2 years later (buried in the inside pages pa nga eh.)

It was Corpus who exposed two years ago the alleged multi-million dollar bank accounts of Lacson in Hong Kong and North America. But to date Corpus has yet to produce evidence.

Read also the ABS-CBN report below on PDI newsclippings being used as "evidence". ;)

(Btw, take note that Lacson was being asked to pay a fine of $31K not because he did any crime or was found guilty, but because he failed to show up at the US court.)

From abs-cbnnews back in aug. 22, 2003: (alternate link here)

California judge saves Ping from paying $3M

The Superior Court of California has vacated its default judgment ordering Sen. Panfilo Lacson to pay $3 million as damages to Filipino-American trader Blanquita Pelaez of California, but the court retained its entry for default against the senator because he did not answer the complaint on time.

The superior court said, in response to Lacson’s motion to vacate the order for him to pay $3 million in damages, that plaintiff Pelaez never proved with any evidence her alleged “humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress” alleged caused by Lacson, except for her unsubstantiated claims.

The court found that the plaintiff supported her claim for damages only with newspaper clippings from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a Philippine newspaper. “That statement was itself supported only by an unauthenticated, unsubstantiated and highly speculative newspaper article -- an article, not incidentally, that says only that defendant [Lacson] is alleged to have stashed some $500 million in US banks.”

The superior court ruled that the lower court, “despite the complete lack of concrete, admissible evidence [the Inquirer clippings did not qualify as such] as to defendant’s net worth, it nevertheless appears that the [lower] court may have accepted as true the statements set forth in the newspaper article.”

That's what you get for relying on Inquirer news clipping as your primary source. And finally this:

Judge James A. Richman added, "There's nothing in the record to suggest that a $3-million punitive damages award was appropriate in light of the $31,292 awarded for the actual [damages]. . .The court concludes that, to the extent that the $3-million judgment was premised on any punitive damages, such judgment is unconstitutional."

And here's the aug. 20, 2005 article from manila times.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Friday that the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, was behind misleading reports that a court in California had ordered his arrest for failing to appear in a 2003 case involving the purchase of handcuffs for the Philippine National Police.

A television report on Thursday said Judge Barbara Miller of the Alameda Superior Court in Oakland had issued a warrant for Lacson’s arrest for failing to appear in court on August 17.

In 2001 a US-based businesswoman, Blanquita Pelaez, sued Lacson, the PNP chief from 1999 to 2001, for not paying a supply of Smith & Wesson handcuffs.

The court ruled in 2003 that Lacson should pay Pelaez $31,263.

Ping shouldn't even be fined because it's pretty obvious na frivolous lawsuit lang yung kay blanquita pelaez at walang basis siya, based on the earlier abs-cbn article. pure and simple harassment on the part of pelaez and her handlers in the admin.

Dapat si Ping pa nga ang mag-file ng lawsuit against Pelaez eh for slander, para mabigyan ng leksyon si Blanquita at ang mga handlers niya sa administration at mabawi niya ang $31K fine niya.

UPDATE: Westborough comments:

i didnt see any document proving all these allegations of a warrant of arrest for ping.... all i saw on tv was this ms pelaez hurling accusations at senator lacson.

it would have given credence to her statement kung meron man lang katibayan sana at hindi kwento lang nya at ng abugado nya. ni hindi pinagsalita ang abugado ni ping, bakit ganon?

ni walang court representative or marshall na nagsalita in behalf of the court? ni wala silang naipakitang documento na nakasaad dun ang status ng kaso.... ang pinakita lang ay ang bandang ibaba ng isang documento na ma pirma ng maraming tao, kabilang na si ping.

i would need to see more proof from the US kung ganyan ang kwento nila.