Iggy Arroyo: I’m not resigning

Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo indicated yesterday that he is not giving up his congressional seat.

"I am an elected, not an appointed, official," he said in a text message to The STAR. He was responding to a question on whether it is true that President Arroyo, his sister-in-law, has asked him to quit and whether he is considering resignation in the wake of the jueteng and "Gloriagate" scandals hounding the administration.

On Monday night, shortly before Mrs. Arroyo addressed the nation on national television, ABS-CBN News Channel reported that the President had asked her congressman-brother-in-law and congressman son Juan Miguel, or Mikey, who represents the second district of Pampanga, to give up their House posts.

"That’s not true," Iggy Arroyo said in his text message.

Mikey Arroyo made a similar denial on Monday night.

The two Arroyos have been accused by confessed bagwoman Sandra Cam of receiving jueteng payola, an allegation that they have denied.

Iggy Arroyo, younger brother of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, is facing an investigation by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for possible tax liabilities.

Based on his statements of assets and liabilities filed with the House, he is worth more than P300 million. However, BIR records reportedly show that before he became a congressman last year, he used to pay an annual income tax of not more than P19,000.

Asked earlier by The STAR to explain the huge discrepancy between his assets and tax payments, Iggy Arroyo said his wealth consisted of properties he inherited from his parents and shares in family-owned corporations.

On the other hand, he said his tax payments were based on the income, such as dividends and allowances, that he derived from these corporations.

Assets and tax obligations are two different things, he added.

In the latter part of 2003, exactly eight days after opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson accused the First Gentleman of hiding more than P260 million in supposedly illegal funds using the false name Jose Pidal, Iggy Arroyo came out in the open and claimed he is the real Jose Pidal and that he owned the bank accounts that Lacson claimed belong to his brother.