Senate committee to resume probe on $2-M extortion charge vs Nani

The Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises will resume its inquiry next week into allegations that former justice secretary Hernando Perez had extorted $2 million from extradited congressman Mark Jimenez.

Committee chairman Sen. John Osmeña told reporters yesterday that he would invite Perez to the hearing.

He said he would confront the former justice secretary with documents from the Swiss government.

He said documents could be the "smoking gun" in the $2 million extortion case against Perez.

The former justice department boss had denied he extorted money from Jimenez, who is awaiting sentence in Miami, Florida on charges of tax evasion and illegal election campaign contributions, to which he has pleaded guilty.

The Swiss documents that have come to the possession of Osmeña and cousin Sen. Sergio Osmeña III consist of a request from the Swiss federal prosecutor to the Philippine government for information about the alleged money laundering activities of Perez, his wife Rosario, brother-in-law Ramon Arceo and banker-friend Ernest Escaler.

The documents included a summary of movements of funds in several bank accounts opened in two cities in Switzerland for Perez by his wife, Arceo and Escaler.

The funds came from the Singapore branch of Swiss bank EFG Private Bank and were monitored by Swiss authorities the moment they entered their banking system.

The accounts were opened in March 2001, about two months after President Arroyo took over from ousted President Joseph Estrada. Perez was among Mrs. Arroyo’s first appointees.

Jimenez claimed Perez extorted $2 million from him in early February 2001. He said he moved the money from his bank in Uruguay to Coutts Bank in Hong Kong. From Hong Kong, the funds were transferred to Singapore, he said.

The Manila congressman exposed the alleged extortion a month after colleague Willie Villarama of Bulacan blew the whistle on what he described as the "Million Dollar Man" in the Arroyo Cabinet.

Osmeña said it was ironic that the Swiss authorities are "investigating our own former justice secretary for alleged money laundering while our government seems to be doing nothing about the case."

The Million Dollar Man controversy eventually forced Perez to quit his justice post, but he still remains widely influential because he is secretary general of the ruling Lakas-NUCD. – Jess Diaz