Conspiracy exists, Palace insists

A Palace official trashed yesterday a denial by the Makati Business Club (MBC) that the group and Equitable-PCI Bank were conspiring to remove President Estrada from office.

Acting Press Secretary Mike Toledo said they have "information" that MBC president Ricardo Romulo, who is also chairman of Equitable-PCI Bank, is engaged in a "conspiracy" to oust the Chief Executive.

"We will use the information in the proper place, in the proper time when it is incumbent upon us to use that information," Toledo said.

Mr. Estrada told reporters that Romulo’s law firm is actually in the center of a scheme to remove him from office by coercing witnesses to testify against him in the impeachment trial.

Romulo said in a press statement the other day that it was merely coincidental that he chairs Equitable-PCI Bank while being president of the influential business group.

Still, Toledo said "the conspiracy plot is in the mind of… a lot of people."

"One need not look far," he said. "A quick look, for example, of the law firm that is helping out the private prosecutors is the Mabanta-Romulo Law Office, of which, one of the name partners is now the chairman of the Equitable-PCI Bank."

Toledo also said that the prosecution panel’s witness, lawyer Jasmine Banal of the Mabanta-Romulo law firm, and a number of lawyers appearing as private prosecutors for the prosecution are also counsels of Equitable-PCI Bank.

"You can see a lot of linkages… (and) it would be not farfetched that indeed there is a conspiracy," Toledo said.

Meanwhile, George Go, whose bank was allegedly used by President Estrada to maintain multimillion-peso accounts, said yesterday he fears for his safety and has been in hiding for a month.

"Let me put it this way. I have not gone home for a month," said Go, former chairman of Equitable-PCI Bank, when asked if he had received actual threats to his person.

"Danger is a part of life," said Go, 58. He would not say, however, where the threats were coming from.

Go was interviewed by Reuters news agency in an office in Manila after protracted negotiations through go-betweens.

Equitable, in which the Go family owns a controlling 30 percent stake, had been hit by about P32 billion in withdrawals in recent weeks, he said in the interview. He said later, however, he meant P3.2 billion.

Go said he was a friend of Mr. Estrada but the relationship was not special. "I would not say (we were) very close. We never talked about business," said the visibly nervous gray-haired man, who chain-smoked through the hour-long interview and spoke mostly in monosyllables.

Equitable has handed over documents to the Senate impeachment court trying Mr. Estrada on charges of corruption which have indicated the presence of a P500 million trust account held in the name of "Jose Velarde."

An Equitable executive, Clarissa Ocampo, testified on Dec. 22 that she witnessed Mr. Estrada opening the account and signing the name Jose Velarde. – Marichu Villanueva