JOSE PIDAL

Testimonies, Recantations, Inconsistencies and Whitewash

Testimonies

On August 18, 2003, Senator Panfilo Lacson delivered a privileged speech entitled Incredible Hulk exposing the existence of Jose Pidal account, which read in part:

 “Who is Jose Pidal? Our investigation led us to LTA building! Pidal's business address is 8/F LTA Bldg., Perea St., Legaspi Village, the same business address as Mr. Jose Miguel Arroyo.    We found one of Jose Pidal's returned checks where Mark Jimenez's contribution for GMA foundation ended up.

        But, who is Jose Pidal? Initially, our investigation led us to Morgan Stanley, one of the largest, if not the largest investment houses in the world. Curiously, both Mr. Jose Pidal and Mr. Jose Miguel T. Arroyo are valued clients. They share the same address, the 8th floor of LTA Building. They also have the same financial advisor, Mr. Ronald Gin, Associate Vice-President for Investments of San Francisco, California. Let's travel to San Francisco later, in the meantime let's go local.

        Let's look at Jose Pidal's return check again.... and compare Pidal's signature with Mr. Jose Miguel Arroyo's. xxxx Mr. Jose Pidal a.k.a. Mr. Jose Miguel Arroyo better get a copy of the Anti-money Laundering Act or, better still, gets his lawyers now.

        Mike Arroyo was right. Mark Jimenez's checks did not go to his bank account, it went straight to Jose Pidal's account. Mr. President that is not all for Mr. Jose Pidal. He also has a bank account at BPI Family Bank. Perea branch of course.

In a press conference arranged in Makati City, Eugenio Mahusay, a godson of Jose Miguel Arroyo and former employee of LTA Incorporated .said the checks were either for withdrawal or deposit at the Union Bank branch on Perea St. in Legaspi Village, Makati, just across the LTA building where Arroyo holds office. Malaya reported the following statements of Mahusay:

He signed right in front of me, ako mismo nagpapapirma, the checks under the name Jose Pidal after which, he would direct me to withdraw 'pay-to-cash' from Union Bank, in front of the LTA building,"

        Mahusay said, Mr. Arroyo also maintains a personal account in the same bank, which he referred to as the JMA account. Mahusay said when he would ask Mr. Arroyo to sign a check, the latter "would ask, `is that (check) JP or JMA?' JP means Jose Pidal and JMA, Jose Miguel Arroyo or Atty. Mike because he also has a personal account in Union Bank," Mahusay said.

In Eugenio Mahusay’s July 21 testimony, he revealed numerous bank accounts of Jose Pidal and his dummies. Below are portions of his testimony:  

“Ang karamihan po ng salapi ay akin pong naideposito o na-withdraw sa Union Bank-Perea Branch, sa Account No. 00-0073001483-6 na nakapangalan po kay Jose Pidal at ang signatory po ay si Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo at sa Account No. 073-001283-9 na nakapangalan po sa Lualhati Foundation”

        “Isa sa mga nahawakan kong tseke ay mula kay Congressman Mark Jimenez na ibinigay kay Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo at aking i-deneposito sa Jose Pidal at Lualhati Foundation accounts sa Union Bank-Perea Branch”

Almost two weeks after Senator Lacson’s revelation Ignacio Arroyo, younger brother of Jose Miguel Arroyo, came forward and admitted that he is Jose Pidal. In his statement he said the following:

“Yes, I am the beneficial owner of the Jose Pidal account in Union Bank as referred by Senator Lacson. You know, I opened the account sometime in 1997 and closed the same in August 2001,"

        I am ready to have my signature examined by any expert, such as the PNP (Philippine National Police) Crime Lab, NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) or an independent handwriting entity and compared with the signatures (on) the checks submitted by Senator Lacson,"

On September 1, 2002, Senator Lacson on his second privileged speech entitled Incredible Hulk Chapter 2 revealed more fat bank accounts of Jose Pidal, joint accounts with Victoria Toh and accounts of alleged dummies.

Recantation

The first testimony of Eugenio Mahusay was expected to be recanted after he was reported “rescued” by the Malacañang boy, Mike Defensor, with a convoy of Presidential Guards and two Presidential choppers. 

        On September 3, 2003, at the Senate hearing, Eugenio “Udong” Mahusay retracted his affidavit dated July 21, 2003, (the affidavit Senator Lacson possesses).  He recanted his previous statement, according to him, upon realizing that what he did was wrong especially when the President’s name was being dragged into the scandal. He was also quoted by Malacañang-fed reports saying he recanted for fear of his life after he overheard the security men provided by the senator talked about liquidating him.  But on the contrary, Mahusay admitted openly that he was not held against his will nor was he any under threat by the security guards provided by Senator Lacson.  In fact, he was allowed to keep his own gun. Thus, this raises the issue whether he was rescued or abducted.

        First and foremost, no one forced Mahusay to submit an affidavit of his knowledge on the suspicious activities on the 8^th floor of LTA building.  He did this on his own free will to get back at Vicky Toh and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo. He was previously an employee of the FG Mike Arroyo until he was accused of stealing a cellular phone and a certain amount of money by Vicky Toh, the First Gentleman’s financial officer.  Eventually,  the incident caused Mike Arroyo to lose trust in Udong and Udong’s eventual estrangement from the Arroyo family.  This happened around March 2002.

        Around October 2002, through the help of a certain Mr. Alex Carlos, Udong contacted Senator Pimentel to divulge his information on Mike Arroyo’s shady transactions, to whom in fact he first presented his own written affidavit. This was his first attempt to expose the wrong doings of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.   However, Pimentel refused to accommodate him due to what he deemed lack of enough evidence and Mahusay’s uncertain integrity.  Then, a few months later, he got in touch with Senator Lacson who willingly helped him to disclose to the public the “corruption” in which the First Gentleman was involved.

        It took him almost seven months to unleash his anger on his former employer.  This is such a long time for him not to realize that fabricating a story is wrong. Thus, he claimed during the Senate hearing that, “he had come to his senses and seen that he was wrong.” He had more than seven months to contemplate his bad fate.  And for such a long time, he must have known what he was getting himself into.  If this was just a simple grudge of a fired employee to his employer, why then, would he go from one senator to another or to a high official, only to complain the unjust treatment he has received.  If the “facts” he possessed had no concern for public interest or hint of truth, knowingly that this would be thoroughly investigated, why then risked going to a senator only in the end become the victim of your own story.  This is because Udong had a valid reason, it was the public’s concern that any form of corruption must be stopped even in the highest level of the government.

        In the Senate inquiry, he was asked by Senator Pimentel if the affidavit he presented to the Senator ten months ago was the same affidavit he presented to Senator Lacson. He answered, “Yes, it was the same document.”  Moreover, he revealed that Mr. Alex Carlos and Mr. Allan Dy helped him with his story, the story presented to Senator Pimentel.

        During that same inquiry, he insisted that he only invented the contents of his hand-written affidavit.  And yet, he also admitted that he took home several documents from the 8^th floor LTA building, specifically from Arroyo’s office, to serve as bases for his “story.” 

Established Facts

In all testimonies so far and preliminary results of the senate hearings, the following facts were established:

1.     That there exist Jose Pidal accounts;

2.     That Victoria Toh, personal accountant of Jose Miguel Arroyo is the conduit of Jose Pidal account at the LTA Building;

3.     That Jose Pidal and Jose Miguel Arroyo have similar financial advisor, the Morgan Stanley of USA;

4.     That Jose Pidal and Jose Miguel Arroyo shares the same business address at 8^th Floor, LTA Building, 118 Perea St. Makati City;

5.     That certain Nestor “Atoy” Pineda, former employee of Union Bank Perea Branch is knowledgeable with the transactions of Jose Pidal; and.

6.     That Eugenio Mahusay was not forced to sign his July 21 affidavit and he was not under duress as claimed by his brothers.

Inconsistencies and Whitewash

While he recanted his July 21 affidavit similar to the one he gave to Senator Aquilino Pimentel he still maintained that he, Vicky Toh and Nestor Pineda were transacting for and in behalf of the Jose Pidal account. The major inconsistencies and recantation that have bearing on his previous affidavit are the following:

§ He does not know who is Jose Pidal while he previously said that he saw First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo signed Jose Pidal checks and even quoted him, “Is that (check) JP or JMA?” JP means Jose Pidal and JMA, Jose Miguel Arroyo or Atty. Mike.  Mike Arroyo also has a personal account in Union Bank. He maintained however that Victoria Toh was the one who ordered him either to deposit or withdraw to/from Jose Pidal account.; and

§ He did not supply the bank account numbers to the camp of Senator Lacson while he said he was not forced to sign his affidavit detailing the bank account numbers of Jose Pidal, Lualhati Foundation, Vicky Toh, Thomas Toh, Jr., and Kelvin Tan.

        With the “rescue” of Malacañang of the star witness of Senator Lacson and partial recantation of Eugenio Mahusay of his July 21 affidavit, Malacañang, the Arroyo brothers, some administration Senators and the banks have laid down their organized whitewash or conspiracy to defend FGMA and PGMA and hide the truth from the public, to wit:

§ Jose Miguel Arroyo for fear of unnecessary divulging his questionable transactions and money laundering activities irritably invoked his right against self incrimination avoiding relevant questions of the Senators;

§ On questions about Jose Pidal and the Arroyo ownership of properties in the USA, he simply pointed to his brother Ignacio Arroyo as the real Jose Pidal and as the proper person to answer  those questions;

§ On the second hearing, Ignacio Arroyo also for fear of unnecessary divulging information on his brother’s questionable wealth and possible tax evasion on his part, consistently followed the defense strategy of his brother and simply invoked his “right to privacy”;

§ The banks where the Jose Pidal accounts were reportedly kept built their defense in concert with the Arroyo brothers by invoking the Bank Secrecy Law and refused to provide any substantial information on Jose Pidal accounts despite the fact that the confessed Jose Pidal already issued a blanket Special Power of Attorney given to the Senate President.  The banks argued that no Jose Pidal signed the SPA.  Senate President Drilon also thought the SPA was useless for the same reason.

§ Some administration Senators were openly rescuing and defending the Arroyo brothers during the Blue Ribbon Committee Hearings. The Committee Chairman seemed to have ready arguments for and in behalf of the Arroyo brothers as some of his colleagues did not hide their desire to stop the investigation. People watching the proceedings thought that Sen. Joker Arroyo could have simply employed the powers of the Senate to summon the original bank records on the questioned accounts instead of requiring Senator Lacson to produce the originals.

§ The Malacañang operators went wild by trying to establish distinctions between the interests of Mike Arroyo and Gloria Arroyo or the First Gentleman and the Office of the President to the point of espousing legal separation and separation of properties for the First Couple. People think that if Mike Arroyo is found guilty Gloria Arroyo should be guilty, too.

§ The Malacañang operators have likewise been involved in diversionary tactics through fabricated intelligence reports linking the opposition to destabilization plots and other issues that may refocus the attention of the public. The Jose Pidal controversy is now competing with major telenovelas in terms of audience market share and excitement of the Filipino public.

Other issues raised:

Contradiction in statements
of Mike and the Tohs

Neal Cruz, Phil. Daily Inquirer

THE TOH siblings (Vicky Toh, Thomas Toh, and brother-in-law Kelvin Tan) have presented to the Senate certifications from different banks that the accounts in their names cited by Sen. Panfilo Lacson in his privilege speeches "do not exist." Lacson had intimated that the deposits really belonged to First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and that the Tohs were merely his "dummies." Now the bank certifications that the accounts are non-existent are supposed to prove that Lacson was lying and write finis to the Senate hearings.

Wait a minute, not so fast. There are questions that need to be clarified first. Didn't the Tohs, shortly after Lacson accused them of fronting for Mike, issue statements that the bank accounts cited by Lacson really belonged to them and not to Mike? And that they have enough wealth from their businesses to justify those deposits? If, as the banks certify, there are no accounts in the names of the Tohs, what did they acknowledge having in that first statement? Just asking.

Another question: The bank certifications stated that the mentioned bank accounts, the account numbers and names of the banks cited, "do not exist." This means they're non-existent "at present," "now." In which case the banks are telling the truth. But is it possible that sometime in the past those accounts did exist? If they had, the banks would still be telling the truth because their certifications did not say that the accounts "don't exist now and never existed in the past." In other words, there could have been such bank accounts in the past but are now closed, hence, no longer exist. But by giving such a statement, the banks give the impression that the accounts "never existed," although they actually mean another thing. That is what is called "mental reservation," when you say one thing but mean another, when you actually tell the truth but not the whole truth. Or when you say a half-truth and a half-lie.

Another thing: The banks said "according to our records" the questioned bank accounts don't exist. They're most probably telling the truth, they did check their records. But it could be only the present records, not past records where it is possible that the mentioned accounts can be found.

Because the puzzle keeps going back to this: If the Tohs acknowledged early on that the bank accounts really existed and belonged to them, not to Mike as Lacson charged, why are the banks now denying that they exist? The possible answer: They did exist in the past but not anymore.

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