MANILA - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband, Mike, asked the House to censure Deputy Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano for claiming they had deposited hundreds of millions of dollars” in a German bank. They also demanded that Cayetano apologize to them.
But Cayetano stood pat on his charges and said he was not going to apologize to the First Family. Madam President, Atty. Mike Arroyo, I am not sorry! It is not because I cannot humble myself if I made a mistake, but because the administration refuses to allow us to present evidence in the committee on justice (during the impeachment proceedings), he said in a privilege speech.
Later, Mike Arroyo held a press
conference which turned out to be nasty when journalists started asking him
questions about the Jose Pidal accounts, jueteng money and other claims. Mike
said the press conference was to be confined only to the charges of Cayetano.
Cayetano said the First Couple had
refused to sign a waiver giving up their right to secrecy over any bank account
that they may have abroad.
He reiterated his call for the President
and her husband to tell their House allies to reopen the impeachment
proceedings “to allow the impeachment team and our lawyers to present evidence
in either the committee on justice or in the Senate or both."
Mrs. Arroyo and the First Gentleman have
denied their family has an account in HypoVereinsbank in Munich, Germany.
Her husband, accompanied by two lawyers, went to Munich to obtain certifications that they do
not have deposits there.
Cayetano said the bank certifications
might not be correct since the bank account number has 23 digits instead of 22
as he had mentioned during the justice committee proceedings.
He said in Europe,
one could maintain an “international bank account” whose length depends on
where the account is opened.
“The French and Italians use 27 digits, Spain uses 24, Austria 20, the Danish use 18, and
the Germans use 22 digits," he added.
He also asked: “Why were they (the
President's husband and his companions) entertained? Why did the bank
accommodate them on a holiday?
Why the belated certification to include
the President?"
“This is for the First Gentleman to
answer. The point is more questions were raised than answers, when by simply
signing the waiver, we could produce the information needed for a conclusive
finding," he said.
In the course of questioning Cayetano,
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, a staunch ally of the Arroyos, said the
deputy minority leader could not prove that the First Family was keeping
hundreds of millions of dollars in a German bank.
“By imposing impossible conditions such
as the reopening of the impeachment proceedings and the signing of a waiver (by
the Arroyos) that would be applicable worldwide, the gentleman is really making excuses and wants
to go on a fishing expedition," he said.
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