LBP ‘suspect’ is whistle-blower

A Land Bank of the Phi-lippines (LBP) cashier tagged by President Arroyo as a key suspect in a P205-million banking scam demanded yesterday a public apology, saying she had been assisting in the investigation of the case.

The complaint of Acsa Ramirez highlighted the potential dangers of the President’s new policy of publicly presenting arrested crime suspects at Malacañang in a bid to boost her get-tough image.

Meanwhile at the Senate, lawmakers deplored Mrs. Arroyo’s presentation to the media of Ramirez as a suspect, who turned out to be an asset in the investigation, and said she should publicly apologize to Ramirez.

At a press conference, a tearful Acsa said she was at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) headquarters last Friday to shed light on the case, and that she was surprised when the President presented her to reporters as an alleged co-conspirator in the scam.

Mrs. Arroyo presented to the press a stunned Ramirez as allegedly among bank officials who diverted P205 million in tax payments to private bank accounts.

Her lawyer, Virginia Suarez-Pindac, said Ramirez was at the NBI giving vital information to investigators about the tax scam when Mrs. Arroyo came and summoned her.

"She thought she was going to be congratulated for exposing the scam and in the confusion she was presented as a suspect," Pinlac told reporters.

"She was invited (by the President), she was asked to stand up. There was a commotion. Her picture was being shown on TV, the reporter said she was in connivance with the other bank officials," she added.

Pindac said NBI investigators apologized to Ramirez in private for the embarrassing incident, but her client is demanding a public apology to clear her name.

Asked if she wanted a presidential apology, Ramirez said: "That is up to President Arroyo."

"I wasn’t involved in the scam. I was the one who exposed it," she said, adding that she was too shocked to protest during the whole incident.

"I have been experiencing sleepless nights because of that. I thought I was being presented to the President to be congratulated. I did not know that I was to be presented as a suspect," Ramirez said.

Her husband Feliciano, a sales engineer, said he has lost several clients already because of Friday’s fiasco. "We cannot even go out of our house without being talked about," he said.

Pindac said it was the discovery of Ramirez of the alleged anomalous transaction at the LBP’s Binangonan, Rizal branch that started an investigation by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The Land Bank union, of which Ramirez is an officer, also issued a statement to "denounce President Gloria Arroyo and the NBI for their error."

In recent weeks, the President has frequently paraded arrested suspected criminals in photo opportunities in what her aides say is to show her resolve in stamping out criminality.

Critics, including human rights advocates, have warned Mrs. Arroyo that the publicity stunt could result in a virtual pre-judgment of criminal cases while hurting the dignity of the presidential office.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez defended the practice in a radio interview yesterday, saying "there is nothing wrong with it. It does not violate any rights. They (the lawmen) are just presenting those that they have arrested."

Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the Ramirez case was a repeat of the experience of People’s Journal reporter Bernadette Tamayo whose pictured was included by the military in a list of wanted Abu Sayyaf members.

Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, said the President’s emphasis on fighting crime might induce some policemen or investigators to "arrest the usual suspects" and "produce" evidence to impress her.

He said the most recent fiasco demonstrates the need to control the practice of parading mere suspects before media.

He said his committee has already started hearing the bill of Sen. Teresa Aquino-Oreta prohibiting the parading of suspects before the media.

Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, vice chairman of the Senate committee on national defense, said his "worst fear came true – that some over-eager authorities might arrest an innocent person just to show that some action is being done."

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Ramirez deserves a public apology "at the very least" from the President. He said NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco should also be held responsible for the foul-up.

Lacson said the President should fire Wycoco in the "same way she fired the Malacañang official responsible for feeding the wrong information on the arrest of Faisal Marohombsar."

Sen. Luisa Ejercito said Mrs. Arroyo was dragging the presidential office to the level of a police precinct through her insistence of formally presenting suspects to the media.

"It used to be a common saying when a person is arrested to tell him to explain his case at a police precinct. By her insatiable hunger for publicity, the joke nowadays when a suspect is arrested is for him to explain his case in Malacañang," Ejercito said.

Ejercito said the proper place for suspects and criminals is a police station and not Malacañang.

Mrs. Arroyo’s determination to build a strong Republic should not be at the expense of violating a citizen’s right to presumptive innocence, she said. — With Efren Danao