Bank exec bares Estrada’s P12-M accounts

An official of the Security Bank Corp. testified before the Sandiganbayan yesterday that jailed former President Joseph Estrada maintains three accounts with the bank, containing more than P12 million, contradicting his sworn statement of assets and liabilities.

During the opening of Estrada’s trial for perjury, Security Bank vice president Salvador Serrano presented documents showing that Estrada maintains three investment savings accounts with deposits amounting to P12,272,584.36.

The first investment savings account, numbered 0091-203796-554, was opened on April 27, 1998 with Treasury bills, bought from the same bank the previous year, amounting to P600,000. The account now has P712,478.83, the documents showed.

On May 21, 1998, or 10 days after he was elected to the presidency, Estrada, through his representative Baby Ortaliza, opened investment savings account No. 0091-203796-550 with an initial deposit of P10 million. The account now has P10.8 million

The documents showed that a commercial paper of the Robinson Land Corp., amounting to P700,000, was converted into investment savings account No. 0091-203796-559 on June 8, 1998. The account now has P760,105.53.

Serrano testified the specimen signatures on a signature card filled out when the accounts were opened corresponded to Estrada’s signature which appears on a P500 bill.

"I have training in signature verification. I can compare this (specimen signature) with the P500 bill issued by the former president and I can see the same strokes," Serrano told the court.

"The accounts are existing up to the present. Yes, there have been no withdrawals," Serrano testified.

Later, a records clerk of the Office of the Ombudsman testified that he officially received Estrada’s statement of assets and liabilities which was filed through a representative on April 29, 1999.

Gerardo Avendano, a clerk of the Ombudsman’s central records division, said Estrada and his wife Luisa Ejercito, who is now a senator, jointly filed the statement declaring the former president had a net worth of P33.4 million with only P5,035,303.40 cash on hand and in banks as of Dec. 31, 1998.

Estrada, who was not present during the hearing, is on trial for two counts of perjury, illegal use of an alias and the capital offense of plunder.

The charges of perjury arose from supposed misdeclarations in the statements of assets and liabilities required from all public officials.

The illegal alias charge stems from Estrada’s supposed use of the name "Jose Velarde" in bank documents that were allegedly used to launder pay-offs from gambling bosses.