Arroyo, accompanied by his lawyer Jesus Santos , went to Munich last week ago to get a certification from the bank.
At that press gathering in Malacañang last Monday, Arroyo distributed copies of the letters dated Aug. 30 from bank general secretary Evi Hollman and compliance officer Dr. Klaus-Michael Ploss to the Arroyo couple.
Hollmann and Ploss wrote that there were no account numbers 87-570-23030-32100-62771571 and under the 87570-23030-32100-6271-571 name of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In a separate letter to Mr. Arroyo, the bank officials said there were no account numbers 87-570-23030-32100-62771571 and 87-570-23030-32100-6271571 under the name of Mr. Jose Miguel T. Arroyo.
Whoever said that the accounts were in their name? Cayetano never did because he knows it’s neither in the name of Gloria Arroyo nor Mike Arroyo.
That certification is nothing. Everybody knows they are not lacking in expert advice how to stash their ill-gotten wealth in ways that the Filipino people would be hard put to trace.
You're right, Ellen. Cayetano did not identify kung kanino naka-pangalan ang bank accounts na yan.
This was from the aug 19 2006 newspaper of malaya, the first time the expose came out:
AN opposition congressman yesterday accused "immediate members" of the family of President Arroyo of hiding a multi-million dollar bank account in a German bank.
In a TV interview, Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano (NP, Taguig-Pateros) declined to identify the owners of the account but said it is inside one of the seven boxes of evidence that were not opened in the impeachment hearings at the House.
Cayetano, spokesman of the pro-impeachment team, has said in the impeachment hearings last Wednesday that the money is kept under account No. 87570-23030-32100-6271-571 in the Hypo-und Vereins Bank AG in Munchen.
In a phone interview, Cayetano dared the Arroyos to issue a waiver allowing the scrutiny of all "fictitious" bank accounts which could be traced to their ownership.
And the bank never claimed both bank account numbers did not exist. it only said that there were no bank account numbers under the name of mike arroyo and GMA. (Of course, one of the bank account numbers is obviously wrong.)
When Victor Corpus on Aug. 5, 2001 accused Lacson of having secret "billion dollar" bank accounts under his name, the following day, Mr. Lacson wrote Citibank to inquirer about these accounts and clear his name. Yung bangko mismo ang nag-clear sa kanya.
But Corpus wasn't convinced, so the Arroyo admin's attack dog demanded that Lacson sign a waiver instead. Pumayag si Lacson, pero wala pa ring mahanap si Corpus. kwek kwek kwek...
Matatandaan natin na noong pagbintangan ni Victor Corpus na may $700 million daw na kurakot si Sen. Panfilo Lacson na galing sa droga at kidnapping for ransom na nakuha noong siya ang chief ng PNP, kaagad nag-isyu ng waiver si Lacson.
Hinamon niya si Corpus na sa kanya ibibigay ang waiver. Bibigyan pa siya ng karapatan na halungkatin ang mga dokumento ng nasabing malaking halaga.
Hindi tinanggap ni Corpus ang waiver. Alam niya na ang ISAFP na pinamumunuan niya noon ang nagtahi-tahi ng kabulastugan para sirain si Lacson.
Kung ako naman si Mike Arroyo, bibigyan ko rin ng waiver sino man ang may gusto. Hanapin ninyo sa bangkong sinasabi ni Alan Peter Cayetano. Kung mapatunayan na meron nga, inyo ng lahat.
Kaya sa palagay ko, mali ang sinabi ni Jess Santos na hindi raw kailangang magbigay si Mike Arroyo ng waiver. Ibig sabihin niyan walang itinatago si Unang Ginoo. Kaya hindi kailangan ang waiver. Wala siyang inaangkin na ano man, lalo na ang malaking halaga ng dolyar sa bangko sa Germany.
‘Yun na nga ang problema, Jess. Kung wala, di ang pinakamatibay na patunay ay ang pag-iisyu ng waiver. Kung bigyan ako, kukunin ko. Hindi para magkamkam ng malaking salapi, kundi para mapatunayan ko na wala ngang itinatagong pera si Mike sa Germany.
Eto sabi ni Ping Lacson re the waiver:
Magugunitang, pumirma sa isang waiver si Lacson at pinabuksan sa mga tauhan ni Mrs. Arroyo ang mga ibinibintang na bank accounts ng senador sa Amerika, alinsunod sa testimonya nina Mary Ong, alyas Rosebud at Angelo Mawanay subalit walang napatunayan dito.
"Silang mag-asawa ang dapat mag-sorry sa akin dahil sa paggamit nila kina Col. Corpus, Mawanay, Mary Ong a.ka. Rosebud para mag-imbento ng kung anu-anong kababalaghang dollar accounts ko sa abroad. Di tulad nu’ng Jose Pidal accounts na totoo at nanggaling mismo kay Udong Mahusay na malapit na tao ni Mike Arroyo," ani Lacson.
See? If Arroyo's favorite senator Ping Lacson can do it, you can doh it too, Pidal.
Look maybe Cayetano is Bullshitting, and this is all just a fabricated story to smear Pidal, but I'm not yet totally convinced at this point that Mike Arroyo is innocent. "Doing a Lacson" and signing the waiver (the same standard the arroyo admin has demanded from lacson) may help convince me.
And Cayetano should hold off his "I am sorry" speech (if he has one prepared) for the meantime...
UPDATE: ito lang ang masasabi ko sa mga nangyayari: either mr. cayetano is making a big blunder by pursuing this, OR…
it’s a brilliant rope-a-dope strategy to lure the pidals.
More: Cayetano: “I am not sorry.”
From the admin-leaning Philippine News Online:
That congressman, Alan Peter Cayetano, had accused the First Family plus a brother of the First Gentleman of maintaining secret accounts where supposedly illicitly earned funds were being stashed. This was certainly a most serious accusation, but Cayetano insisted that he could prove the existence of those accounts if Mr. Arroyo signed a waver that allowed lawmakers to look into his deposits.
Cayetano was asking for the impossible, of course, as no person in his right mind would have agreed to such a request.
Not impossible. Lacson was "dumb enough" to do it.
Sabi ni Fencesitter:
the alleged arroyo secret bank deposits in germany have all the shades of marcos secret deposits in switzerland which up to now the filipino people have managed to scratch only a thin layer of its surface. barya-barya lang ang nabawi after more than 20 years and yet of the total amount so far recovered, probably half of that lined someone’s pocket again.
after arroyo’s term in malacañang, we will have PCGG Part II to hound them at the start. but i bet, after another decade or two, we will see its commissioners partying and waltzing with the arroyos as they cook another deal. another sell out in the near future. abangan!
UPDATE: Arroyo's allies are ganging up on Cayetano. Rep. Mikey Arroyo and Iggy "I invoke my right to privacy" Arroyo are leading the pro-administration congressmen in having Cayetano expelled from congress.
Ed Ching reports that Gov't controlled media outlets have been given the go signal to attack Mr. Cayetano:
We noticed that people who have cases with the people usually resort to talk to clear their name. President Arroyo yesterday took the cudgels for her embattled husband First Gentleman Mike Arroyo by freely using the opportunity to lambast Cong. Alan Peter Cayetano. In fact, government-owned media outlets now replaced their target boards with that of Cong. Cayetano. All of their commentators in the government-owned Radyo ng Bayan (738khz AM) called the young lawmaker a coward and freely hurled implied invectives against him, particularly during the station's early morning commentaries.Romulo Makalintal:
“How would you waive something that doesn’t exist? What is the relevance of such a waiver if there are no secret accounts in the first place,” Macalintal said.
The lawyer also denied that Mrs. Arroyo was intimidating Cayetano but urged the voting public not to support him if he runs for the 2007 senatorial race.
Kaya nga eh, kung wala kayong pera sa HypoVereinsbank, bigyan nyo na ng waiver si Cayetano, at kung may mahanap man siyang Pidal money sa loob ng German bank, kanya na yan. Ganyan ang sabi ni Jake Macasaet at ginawa mismo ni Lacson.
And there seems to have been a change in plans, Macalintal. First, Mike Arroyo threatened to file libel charges against Cayetano. Then GMA accused Cayetano of lying and demanded an apology. Then the Arroyo family's legal team headed by Romulo Makalintal said that they will drop all 13 libel charges against Cayetano if he apologized.
Pero nung sinabi ni Rep. Cayetano na hindi siya mag-aapologize, a group of pro-Arroyo congressmen, led by Mikey and Iggy Arroyo, have begun working to have him expelled.
From the tribune editorial:
Not even a denial from a president of the republic, nor a negative bank certification is likely to kill the issue of the alleged “secret” bank accounts the presidential family is supposed to hold here and abroad, mainly because the issue is not just the alleged secret accounts in HypoVereinsbank but a bigger problem that is two-fold: lack of credibility on the part of Gloria Arroyo and her family members, and her penchant for evading the basic charges leveled against her and her administration that will continue to haunt her if she insists on not confronting these principal issues to the satisfaction of the Filipino people.
A bank certification stating that she and her spouse do not own a bank account in the German bank does not prove that the account does not exist, for a number of varied reasons.
One reason for the issuance of a negative certification could be that at the time the certification was issued, the account was no longer in existence. Therefore, the bank would not feel it was lying about the existence of the account, as of that date.
This has happened before, during the Jose Pidal hearings at the Senate, where the banks mentioned issued a certification that the Pidal account does not exist, even when it clearly existed, as shown through original documents. And when challenged with these, the bank officials, as well as the allies of Mrs. Arroyo in the Senate, hid behind the bank secrecy law, after which the presidential brother, Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo claimed he was Jose Pidal but refused to answer any questions on it, claiming his right to privacy.
A second reason is that such a HypoVereins certification hardly proves anything as the the name of the account holder may have been an alias, or even just a number with the beneficial owner protected under bank terms and conditions. This has happened before in a Swiss bank, where the name of Jane Smith appears, but whose beneficiary was said to be Imelda Marcos.
A third reason could be that while the bank may be the HypoVereins bank, the account could be held in a branch, whether in Germany or, as pointed out by a senator, in a nearby country, such as Austria.
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