‘Dichaves put P189 M in Velarde account’

A teller of the Equitable PCI Bank testified before the Sandiganbayan yesterday that businessman Jaime Dichaves indeed deposited P189.7 million in a bank account under the fictitious name of "Jose Velarde."

Testifying as the 11th prosecution witness, bank teller Glyzelyn Hermosura Bejec, of the Equitable PCI Bank branch along Ortigas Avenue in Greenhills, San Juan, said that Dichaves, through a representative, made an inter-bank deposit of four checks on Nov. 8, 1999.

One of the checks, Bejec said, was in the amount of P189.7 million which the prosecution claims represents the commission of deposed President Joseph Estrada on an allegedly rigged transaction involving the two state pension funds.

Bejec said she processed the deposit of four Far East Bank and Trust Co. checks, including one check for P189.7 million, into account number 0160-62501-5, under the name of Jose Velarde, which is maintained in the bank’s branch in Binondo, Manila.

The prosecution claims that the name "Jose Velarde" was actually Estrada and that he used that account to launder ill-gotten wealth.

She said the three other checks also involved large amounts with one amounting to P20 million, another P10,875,749.43 and the third P42,760,554.82

"I don’t personally know Dichaves but he was the one who issued the check. I don’t know if Jose Velarde and Jaime Dichaves are the same," Bejec said.

But Estrada’s appointed lawyer, former Sandiganbayan presiding justice Manuel Pamaran, asked the court to strike out Bejec’s entire testimony until the prosecution presents the original checks she testified about.

The testimony was for the plunder charge against the former president and stemmed from the charge that Estrada ordered the Government Service and Insurance Service (GSIS) and Social Security System (SSS) to purchase stocks of gaming firm Belle Corp.

The prosecution claims that in consideration of that presidential order, Estrada received a commission of P189.7 million.

In the perjury cases against Estrada, Pamaran and his co-defense lawyer, Prospero Crescini, also persuaded the court to defer the presentation of another prosecution witness until the defense files a petition questioning the legality of the documents the witness was supposed to present.

The witness was Kathryn Victoriano, chief of the administrative division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), who was supposed to present income tax returns Estrada filed from 1987 to 1997.

Pamaran noted that based on the complaint sheet government lawyers filed against Estrada, the prosecution accused Estrada of amassing ill-gotten wealth, amounting to some P4.8 billion, from June 1998, the year when Estrada became president, to January 2001.

He said the court’s order for Victoriano to present Estrada’s tax returns from 1987 to 1997 had no basis because the complaint sheet "clearly provides that the accused allegedly committed the crime of plunder during the period ... June 1998 to January 2001 only."