Trader who linked Mike A to telecom scam arrested

A businessman who linked President Arroyo and her husband to a multimillion-peso scam last year was ordered arrested for forgery yesterday by a judge in Mandaluyong City.

Judge Lizabeth GutierrezTorres of the Mandaluyong Metropolitan Trial Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Pacifico Marcelo, 53, after finding probable cause to charge him with 12 counts of forgery and falsification of public documents.

Government prosecutors have accused Marcelo of falsifying documents he had submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in processing the papers of nine telecommunications companies he had put up.

Court records show Marcelo made it appear in the documents that he was a Filipino citizen when he registered the nine companies with the SEC.

Records at the Bureau of Immigration and the US Embassy in Manila showed Marcelo was born in the United States on Aug. 14, 1949, where he was also raised.

Immigration Associate Commissioner Orlando Dizon and Dennis Pierce, assistant legal attaché at the US Embassy, presented certificates to the court to prove that Marcelo is an American citizen.

The certificates show that Marcelo carries a US passport with serial No. N377590.

Marcelo was listed as one of the incorporators of Philippine Communications Clearinghouse Inc., APC Wireless Interface Networks Inc., Northern Pacific Link Corp., Great Solomon Inc., KONSKOM Specialist Inc., PEJJJ International Consultancy Group Inc., Phoenix Wireless Group Asia Inc., Pacific Cellular and Paging Services Inc., and Asian Teleservices Inc.

Records show Marcelo registered the nine companies at the SEC between October 1995 and February last year but later amended their articles of incorporation and by-laws.

Marcelo resigned as board member of the sequestered Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. in November last year after he revealed that Mrs. Arroyo and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo owned shares in his companies.

Marcelo has accused Mrs. Arroyo of demanding a 51 percent share in his firms in exchange for her signing a telecommunications franchise which has been passed by Congress.

Marcelo said when he refused to give in to Mrs. Arroyo’s demands, she vetoed the franchise, which would have benefited his telecommunications companies.

Marcelo went into hiding after government prosecutors filed charges against him in court.