Dato files ethics case vs Cayetano

President Arroyo’s youngest son has joined forces with his father, brother and uncle against Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, who had accused the First Family of keeping huge deposits in a German bank.

Diosdado Macapagal Arroyo, nicknamed Dato, has filed with the House ethics committee a complaint for "disorderly behavior and unparliamentary conduct" against Cayetano.

Like his father, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, brother Juan Miguel, a Pampanga congressman, and uncle Jose Ignacio, a Negros Occidental congressman, the young Arroyo wants the Taguig-Pateros lawmaker expelled from the House.

The Arroyos have denied they have a German bank account.

Sought for comment, Cayetano, a deputy minority leader, said the court and ethics committee case that the Arroyos have filed against him is "the price for speaking for the people and demanding good governance in this administration."

"The Arroyos obviously want to set an example and scare other oppositionists and critics, be they lawmakers or journalists — scare them away so that the Arroyo family’s activities and wealth won’t be scrutinized," he said.

However, he said unlike the President who did not answer the impeachment charges against her, "I will face my accusers and hold them to the standards of good government they promised at Edsa 2."

Diosdado Arroyo’s complaint is almost the same as those filed earlier by his father, brother and uncle.

He narrated that last Aug. 16, during the House justice committee deliberation on the impeachment complaint against his mother, Cayetano "asserted that the President and the First Family owned a German bank account with account number 8757023030—321006271571."

He was referring to the statement made by the opposition leader disputing the claim of Mrs. Arroyo’s allies that the evidence the opposition had to support its new impeachment complaint was "recycled trash."

"Is a local bank account with hundreds of millions of pesos trash? What about a German bank account with hundreds of millions of dollars - not pesos - and with the account number 87-570-23030-32100-62771571?" he asked.

He later revealed that the deposits were kept in HypoVereinsbank in Munich.