"We have to finish Erap once and for all."

Mark Jimenez says Erap should spend 100 years in jail.

Jimenez told The STAR that Estrada should serve a hundred years in prison for approving the $470-million power project of Argentine firm Industrias Metallurgicas Perscarmona, SA (IMPSA).

Jimenez said Estrada merely added to the public confusion over the issue concerning the $2-million extortion complaint that he filed against former justice secretary Hernando Perez.

"We have to finish Erap once and for all. I can’t understand why a plunderer like him can talk freely and sow all this confusion on the IMPSA case. We have to send him to jail for plunder and pay for his sins," Jimenez remarked.

I think the Preacher Man is losing it...

In other news, Estrada cleared in power plant deal fiasco:

FORMER justice secretary Artemio Tuquero has cleared deposed president Joseph Estrada of any liability in the controversial $470-million power plant contract the government was to have forged with a private Argentine firm and put the burden of responsibility on his successor Hernando Perez.

Tuquero said how could the power plant agreement be Estrada's biggest plunder, as claimed by his former ally and ex-Manila congressman Mark Jimenez, when Estrada had refused to grant IMPSA's (Industrias Metallurgicas Perscarmona, Sociedad Anonima) condition to include a “sovereign guarantee” clause in the contract.

"We [Estrada] never talked about IMPSA agreement because during our time, it was still under [the] negotiating stage between IMPSA and our representative, Finance Secretary Jose Pardo," Tuquero said, adding that the negotiation could not move because Estrada stood pat on his "no sovereign guarantee policy."

He said Pardo had a draft legal opinion on the IMPSA contract but was not able to sign it because at that time the second military-backed people power revolt had already ousted Estrada.

Two days later, Tuquero said Perez had issued a legal opinion allegedly copying in verbatim Pardo's legal opinion but inserting the sovereign guarantee clause.

"Sovereign guarantee means that if IMPSA fails to pay, their creditors will go after Napocor[National Power Corp.] and the Philippine government to pay those loans," Tuquero said.

Tuquero said he was prepared to face any inquiry on the IMPSA project.

"I am just waiting for a subpoena from the Senate," he said.

MORE: Rasheed Abou-Alsamh: Arroyo Can’t Get Rid of the Stench of Corruption

UPDATE: Thanks for the articles, baycas.

Angara 'okayed' guarantee in IMPSA deal

THE controversial Department of Justice (DOJ) opinion signed by then justice secretary Hernando Perez that accordingly granted "direct sovereignty" to the Argentine firm IMPSA over the Caliraya-Botokan-Kalayaan power rehabilitation project had Senator Edgardo Angara's fingerprints all over it.

In Tuesday's Senate hearing conducted by Senator John Henry Osmeña's committee on government corporations and public enterprises on the contract the Argentine firm Industrias Metallurgicas Pescamona Sociedad Anumina (IMPSA) entered into with the government, a certain Claro Flores of the DOJ admitted he was the one who inserted the "questionable" statements in the DOJ opinion with orders from the higher authorities to "rush" it.

The inserted lines were said to have provided "sovereign guarantee" to the project.

He said he followed the order faithfully and finished the DOJ opinion in four hours that same day after receiving the "rush order" from former DOJ Secretary Artemio Tuquero "for ES (Executive Secretary) Angara."

Two "RUSH" notes, issued on January 18 from Tuquero's office to DOJ Undersecretary Regis Puno who in turn ordered Assistant Chief State Counsel Rosalinda A. Vicente to direct Flores to finish the opinion, was traced back to Angara's move to expedite the DOJ opinion.

Flores also admitted that during the same day when the opinion was being rushed, he was consulting with National Power Corporation's (NPC) lawyer Alberto Pangcog, IMPSA Project Manager Marcelino Abesamis, and IMPSA lawyer Teresa Tam-Yap to discuss the controversial insertions.

Flores, upon Senator Sergio Osmeña III's questioning, said he could not recall if he was able to review the Omnibus Credits and Security Agreement relating to the project's Government Acknowledgement and Consent Agreement (GACA) before he completed the opinion.

He said the Omnibus was vital to the opinion. Flores, trying to evade responsibility, said the DOJ was not competent to review the Omnibus saying it was after all financial matters. Osmeña admonished Flores that the Omnibus was all about legal matters.

"It is obvious that Angara wanted to rush the DOJ opinion. He wanted to make it appear that he stopped the opinion from pushing through, but in reality he was trying to expedite it," Serge Osmeña said.

Interesting. For the longest time, erap refused to give a "sovereign guarantee" to the IMPSA deal. If he wanted to, he could have given in a long time ago.

Now here comes Ed Angara, who was only appointed Executive Secretary (aka the "Little President") on Jan. 6. 2001, just a few days before Edsa Dos. But he was already rusing the passage of the IMPSA deal as if he knew something big is going down kaya niya minamadali ito. Was he acting independently as "little president" just a few days before Erap's fall?

Before Angara's appointment as ES, it seems na hindi matuloy tuloy ang IMPSA deal dahil sa "sovereign guarantee." When Angara became Executive Secretary, priority kaagad ang IMPSA deal with "sovereign guarantee". Kanino ba ni Angara ipapa-approve ito? Kay Erap? But Erap was already under heavy scrutiny from the press and civil society because of the impeachment thing. The last thing he needs then was to attract more controversy by signing a bad corrupt deal.

OTOH, Angara seems to be in a rush to get the IMPSA documents ready to be signed. And the interesting part is, 4 days after pinalitan na ng Arroyo admin si Erap, even before they had barely warmed their seats, pinirmahan kaagad ni Nani Perez ang kontrata, kahit na anomalous ito. How seamless. How convenient for them.

And if I recall correctly, a few days before EDSA Dos, PCIJ reported that the people at IMPSA visited the ARroyos at their Linden Suites headquarters after not getting it done with Erap. Hmmmm....

It was Villa Abrille who was helping iron out the kinks in the IMPSA deal up to the last days of the Estrada administration. Three days before the president was ousted, businessmen close to him said, the ambassador was in Estrada's Greenhills mansion, seeking Malacañang's help in getting a justice department opinion favoring IMPSA.

On January 20, the day Estrada left the presidential palace, Villa Abrille was seen by at least two businessmen at Linden Suites, which Arroyo used as a temporary headquarters during the revolt. Four days later, the opinion that IMPSA wanted was on the new justice secretary's desk.

IMPSA-Asia President Francisco Ruben Valenti said he met with Perez at the latter's office on the same day and gave him a briefing on the history of the CBK project. In those days, Perez was busy issuing hold departure orders against Estrada cronies yet he found time for Valenti.

But Perez, in an interview, flatly denied he had met with Valenti or other IMPSA officials on the CBK project. He said it was not Valenti, but NPC officials-whose names Perez could not remember-who pestered him to sign the opinion.

So was Angara trying to rush the deal for Erap to sign, or for the Arroyo admin to sign? IMPSA never got what it wanted during erap's three years in office. But within four days after Edsa Dos, naayos na kaagad ang kontrata.

Was Angara already an Arroyo mole before then? Well, the SC used the Angara Diary for Erap's "Contructive REsignation"... LOL.

MORE: Ellen Tordesillas on Chavit Singson and a letter she's reprinting from Jose Pardo back in Dec. 2002 that sheds more light on the "sovereign guarantee" issue and IMPSA. Go read it.