‘GMA is Nani’s knight in shining armor’

Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez trained his guns yesterday on President Arroyo who, he said, has come to the rescue of her embattled justice secretary-on leave, Hernando Perez, "like a knight in shining armor."

In a statement, Jimenez claimed that Mrs. Arroyo and his former friend, ousted President Joseph Estrada, have struck a deal that would put the blame on him for the allegedly anomalous power contract awarded to Argentinian firm Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona SA (Impsa).

He said Estrada’s testimony tomorrow at the Senate that he offered the disgraced leader $14 million for the Impsa contract is intended to bury under the rug his accusation that Perez extorted $2 million from him.

The justice secretary-on leave has denied the accusation. Impsa had also repeatedly denied paying a bribe to any government official to bag the contract.

Jimenez has similarly denied the former president’s claim that he offered him $14 million for the Impsa deal. Mrs. Arroyo has said it was Estrada who signed the Impsa contract. However, it was Perez, in early February 2001, who gave the legal opinion that paved the way for the implementation of the Impsa project.

Malacañang has denied that Arroyo administration officials received the $14 million that Estrada was talking about.

Jimenez said Mrs. Arroyo has arranged for Estrada’s "pass" so the former president could attend a Senate hearing and take a bath at a miraculous fountain in Novaliches, Quezon City.

"After alleging that Estrada signed the Impsa contract, she now allows him to testify (at the Senate) and pass the blame on me. She has virtually duped her allies into believing they were allowing Estrada on a Christmas pass for humanitarian considerations," he said.

"Before, she would not even think of allowing him to buy bubble gum outside his hospital detention cell," he added.

He urged his former friend not to fall into the trap that he claimed was designed to extricate Perez.

He insisted that the $2 million that he wired to Coutts Bank in Hong Kong for Perez on Feb. 23, 2001 was his own money and did not come from Impsa as Estrada has insinuated.

Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Estrada’s national police chief during his short-lived administration, has made a similar claim.

Lacson has said the $2 million that allegedly went to the justice secretary was part of the $14 million Impsa payoff. The $12 million balance, the senator claimed, was shared by top administration officials.