From the Malaya:
TEAM Unity candidate Joker Arroyo yesterday said had the opposition then secured a court order, the public would have known who owns the controversial Jose Pidal account.
Arroyo, chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee which suspended its inquiry into the fictitious bank account, said the opposition deliberately refused to secure a court order to comply with the provisions of the Bank Secrecy Law.
"I told them, you go to court but they did not because they wanted to use it for propaganda. So, it was a matter of going to court. Get a court order and we will obey," he said.
"The law is very clear. Bank accounts cannot be opened. No way it can be opened. That is the essence of the Bank Secrecy Law, which has been with us for over a hundred years, and that is sacred doctrine," he added.
"The problem with the opposition is they didn’t want to go to court because they wanted it hanging and they succeeded in making that an issue up to this moment," he said.
BS. Lacson did better by asking the Anti Money Laundering Council to freeze Pidal's accounts, where it's job is to check on these hidden bank accounts and other money laundering activities, di ba?
Pero ayaw ng mga kaalyado ni Mike ARroyo sa senado (notably joker and sen. barbers) na tanggapin ang ebidensiya na iprinisenta ni Lacson dahil hindi raw original ang iilan sa mga dokumento na nawak nya (xeroxed lang yung iba).
Even if the documents were authenticated by the banks:
Sen. Robert Barbers yesterday said he would push for the deferment of the hearing of the Senate blue ribbon, electoral reforms and banks committees if Lacson still fails to submit evidence in the next hearing.
Sen. Joker Arroyo, blue ribbon committee chairman, said the next hearing would be on Monday, with Ignacio Arroyo in attendance. Ignacio, younger brother of the President's husband, has claimed ownership over the Jose Pidal accounts which Lacson has alleged were actually owned by Mike.
"It's helpless if we can't ask questions without the evidence. In the absence of the evidence, we should not summon Mr. (Mike) Arroyo. I will ask for the original copies of the documents because even if it's authenticated, it will not hold water because it's not the original," Barbers said.
But it is almost impossible for lacson to get the originals dahil pagmamayari ni mike arroyo at ng mga bangko ang mga documento na yon. And mike arroyo and co. weren't going to give it up, period.
As for Barbers' comment na kahit na authenticated ng bangko ang documento ay hindi pa rin nila tatanggapin yan as evidence, that says it all about the admin senators intentions at that time--to stonewall the pidal investigations and protect mike arroyo at all cost.
The right thing to do sana was to allow the bank employees under oath to authenticate lacson's photocopied documents during the senate hearings, but since pati yung mga "authenticated" documents ay hindi na rin nila tatanggapin, WATS DA POINT of this "we need more evidence" charade by Joker and Barbers? (check this out too on Gen. Carlos Garcia's case.)
Sabi ni barbers walang kwenta raw ang mga authenticated documents because it is not the original, pero bakit sila tumanggap ng authenticated copies when they were investigating PIATCO?
Arroyo, chair of the Senate blue-ribbon committee, tasked by the Senate to conduct the investigation, asked Pimentel to stop badgering his committee on “what to do because he does not know whereof he speaks.”
He said his committee wrote to Fraport on October 20, 2003, through its general counsel, Jose Diokno, asking for an authenticated copy of Fraport’s pleadings filed before the World Bank International Center for Settlement of Investment and Disputes (WB-Icsid) particularly on its allegations that Cabinet-level officials insisted that Fraport’s Philippine partners be eased out of the airport consortium in exchange for the protection of Fraport’s interest.
Besides, what's the point of going to court, eh na "rescue" na ni Mike Defensor si witness Udong Mahusay kay kidnapper Ping. I don't recall Joker being outraged by the admin's blatant attempt at witness tampering. lol.
Sino sa mga whistleblowers ang lalabas kung tine-threaten sila ng mga kaalyado ni arroyo? Tignan nyo na lang ang nangyari kay acsa ramirez.
Pero eniwey, balik tayo sa umpisa:
TEAM Unity candidate Joker Arroyo yesterday said had the opposition then secured a court order, the public would have known who owns the controversial Jose Pidal account.
Uh... hindi ba ikaw at mga cohorts mo ang nag-recognize kay Iggy "I invoke my right to privacy" Arroyo bilang owner ng Pidal accounts? Akala ko ba siya ang mayari?
UPDATE: Rudy Romero on Joker Arroyo's handling of the Pidal case:
Joker Arroyo denies to high heavens, and becomes extremely indignant, when it is suggested that he is one of the Arroyo couple's men in the Senate, but very few knowledgeable people are impressed by the denials. How else to explain his unyielding ?Show me the hard evidence first? stance in the face of evidence and testimony strongly suggesting wrongdoing on the part of the person who signed himself as Jose Pidal? Sen. Joker Arroyo hastily brought the blue ribbon inquiry to an end.
Since the nation could not expect any punitive, even corrective, action on the Jose Pidal case from the blue ribbon committee as long as Ninez Olivares's HS is its chairman, Serge Osme?a decided to perform the chore of trying to get to the bottom of the matter. Joker Arroyo protested that something like the Jose Pidal case was properly the subject of a blue ribbon committee inquiry. Serge Osme?a countered that, the Jose Pidal case being a banking matter, a committee on banks inquiry was entirely appropriate.
At the inquiry conducted jointly by Serge Osme?a's committee and Sen. Edgardo Angara's committee on revision of laws in the aftermath of the blue ribbon committee's abbreviated proceedings, Jose Miguel Arroyo's brother Ignacio (Iggy), who previously claimed ownership of the Jose Pidal deposits and freely supplied television anchor Arnold Clavio with specimens of his Jose Pidal signature, was far less forthcoming.
He invoked a ?right to privacy? and refused to answer questions about the Jose Pidal deposits and declined to give specimens of his Jose Pidal signature.
In the face of all these circumstances and developments, Joker Arroyo has been unmoved and unyielding. Ignacio Arroyo is not a government official and is therefore entitled to invoke a ?right to privacy,? Cory Aquino's first executive secretary maintained. In so holding, Joker Arroyo conveniently ignored (1) that Iggy is the brother of the presidential consort, who took all of two weeks to come forward and declare that the Jose Pidal of the bank deposits was his brother Ignacio and (2) that Jose Miguel Arroyo had at first a feigned ignorance of the existence of a Pidal ancestry.
Serge Osme?a is convinced that his colleague Joker is engaging in chicanery and is doing his darndest to protect the skins of the Arroyo brothers and, that of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He intends, with the members of his committee, to get to the bottom of a scandal which has the potential to completely destroy whatever credibility GMA's administration still enjoys.
At the recent committee on banks inquiry, which was snubbed by Iggy Arroyo/Pidal, Serge Osme?a displayed, for all to see clearly, blow-ups of two signatures beside one another. One signature was the ?Jose Pidal? appearing in the returned bank checks, the other was ?Jose Pidal? as signed by Iggy Ignacio on Arnold's Clavio's GMA-7 show. Quips Serge Osme?a: ?Even my five-year-old daughter can see that the two signatures are very dissimilar.?
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