Former beauty queen returns to Manila to file raps vs Estrada

Former beauty queen Joelle Marie Henson Pelaez arrived in Manila with her mother Blanquita Monday night to file estafa charges against San Miguel Corp. executive Ramon Ang and other former officials of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB).

Pelaez had accused the officials of conspiring to use her name in laundering money for her former suitor, jailed former President Joseph Estrada.

Pelaez, however, declined an interview with airport reporters, saying that she needed to talk to her lawyers first before talking at length to the media.

"I’ll have to talk to my lawyers first. I’m sorry," she said.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said it would arrange a meeting with the former Binibining Pilipinas contender and ask her to shed light on the alleged P2-billion money laundering scam involving Estrada.

NBI Interpol Division chief Claro de Castro Jr. said they already obtained a copy of Pelaez’s complaint but refused to divulge its contents, which needed verification.

The 29-year-old beauty contestant alleged that Estrada and his cohorts forged her signature from March to December 2000 to make it appear that she traded government bonds and commercial paper worth millions of pesos, which she claimed was beyond her financial capability. Bank documents reportedly showed a single transaction amounting to P600 million.

Documents also showed that she opened peso and dollar accounts in government-sequestered UCPB, sold P1 billion worth of securities to the UCPB, and bought from UCPB P1 billion worth of debt instruments from firms heavily indebted to UCPB.

The NBI has been coordinating with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in the investigation.

For her part, Blanquita said her daughter will file charges against Ang, former UCPB head Jeronimo Kilayko and some of their subordinates at the SMC and UCPB before the week ends.

Asked if Estrada was included in the charge sheet, Blanquita said: "Kasama na rin siya dun (He is also included)."

The elder Pelaez also revealed that Joelle will stay in the country only for a few days, just to file the charges and will return to the US immediately to resume her work in a talent management agency.

However, she disclosed that her daughter will also file identity theft charges against the same people in the US.

Counter charges

As a counter measure, Estrada had reportedly instructed his lawyers to immediately file libel charges here and in the United States against the younger Pelaez for her accusations that he was involved in money laundering activities.

The filing of the libel charges in the Philippines will be handled by the Rodriguez and Casila Law Office while the Siguion-Reyna, Montecillo, and Ongsiako Law Office will handle the US litigation.

In a press statement of the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino, Estrada’s political group, lawyer Rufus Rodriguez explained that the detained President was prompted to file libel charges against Pelaez after she "conducted a media blitz on his alleged money laundering activities."

Rodriguez said Pelaez’s media exposé of Estrada’s alleged money laundering activities had been the subject of a series of damaging news articles against Estrada and his family published last May in a Manila broadsheet and other websites worldwide.

"From the very beginning, Estrada has made known his belief that Ms. Pelaez’s sudden appearance in public is part of a political program to distract him as he renders his testimony before the Sandiganbayan which is hearing the plunder case against him," Rodriguez said. "But since it did not succeed, she is again being used to discredit him (Estrada) because his political enemies have finally realized the weakness of the plunder case against him."

Close encounters with Estrada

In a six-page affidavit filed before the Orange County Court in California, Pelaez said she first met Estrada in December 1998 at the lobby of the Renaissance Tower in Ortigas Center in Pasig where she was with show business personality Anabelle Rama to attend a party.

While seated at the lobby lounge, she said Estrada arrived and an aide later invited them to join the President in a party at the penthouse.

Their next meeting, she said came more than two months later in February 1999 after she won as a runner-up in the Binibining Pilipinas pageant. She said Rama brought her to Malacañang Palace with her daughter Ruffa Gutierrez, who also won as a runner-up in the same pageant.

However, before the meeting at the Palace, Pelaez said that sometime in January 1999, Estrada attended the birthday party of Rama at the Casa Nila in Greenhills, San Juan where he sang the classic Filipino song "Saan Ka Man Naroroon, Sinta" though he reportedly changed the lyrics to "Saan Ka Man Naroroon, Joelle."

On Easter Sunday in 1999. Pelaez said she was brought to Tagaytay Highlands where the former president was playing mahjong with his friends. Estrada reportedly won and asked Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson to hand over his winnings amounting to P2 million to Pelaez.

"Joelle, buy yourself a BMW," Estrada reportedly told her. Pelaez admitted having bought a 1999 BMW 318 from PGA Cars.

Sometime in April, Pelaez said she was invited by one Jimmy Borromeo and businessman Bob Sobrepeña to join the President in his official trip to Hong Kong. During the trip, she said Estrada gifted her with a gold Rolex watch studded with diamonds, which she later learned was worth P1.7 million.

Pelaez added that the former president also later gave her later a condominium unit at the Renaissance Tower in Ortigas and offered her a business to run, through Ang, which turned out to be a dealership for San Miguel beer.

A couple of weeks later, she recalled going to the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) where she and her mother met bank officials Lorenzo Tan, Kilayko and Alfredo Bautista supposedly for a loan for the San Miguel dealership.

In the meeting, she said she was advised to put up a company to manage the dealership which will receive a loan. She said she told UCPB officials that she was only 23 years old, an American citizen and had only worked as a model.

But though she was not qualified to get the loan, she said P5 million was released to her which she then used to set up the dealership, which failed to materialize.

She was surprised to learn very much later that there was also a dollar account at UCPB under her name. — Rainier Allan Ronda, Evelyn Macairan