Guardianship petition a cover-up for estafa – MJ

The guardianship petition filed by the children of former Manila congressman Mark Jimenez was meant to cover up the estafa case they are now facing in court.

This was according to Jimenez himself, who claimed his children wanted to muddle the issue against them by filing the guardianship petition, which is based only on the 1992 handwritten letter to his wife Carol Castañeda.

Jimenez said the petitioners cannot produce any document or evidence that he is suffering from mental illness, or has been sent to any mental institution.

According to Jimenez, the letter was written after he and Carol, who was then living in the US, had a spat after he discovered his wife was having an affair. Carol then left their home and took their son, Yannick.

Jimenez claimed he wrote the letter in a desperate attempt to convince Carol to come back home, which she eventually did.

Jimenez’s children had earlier filed with the Pasig City Regional Trial Court a petition for guardianship over their father.

According to petitioners Virgilio Amadeo Pensacola Crespo and Maria Carolina Castañeda Crespo-Fah, the petition is grounded on the “unsound mind” of their father, describing him as “violent and a danger to family members, to others and to himself.”

Virgilio is one of the sons of Jimenez with his legal wife Ma. Aleli Pensacola, while Carolina is Jimenez’s daughter with Castañeda.

In a statement, the Jimenez children said the time has come for them to take action to prevent further injury.

They claimed the former Manila congressman had been committed to a mental ward before.

The children nominated Aleli Pensacola to take custody of Jimenez and the estate upon the filing of the petition and before hearings are conducted.

The cases against the Jimenez children include the sale of Meridian Telecoms worth P2.4 billion and the sale of a Forbes Park residence worth P135 million.

Jimenez also said his daughter Myla Villanueva and son-in-law Generoso Villanueva are hiding a deposit to a dollar account in Far East Bank worth $37 million taken from his own money.

“They (Jimenez’s children) are not after his health, but his wealth, claiming that they are afraid that his money is being wasted on the Hulog ng Langit Foundation which their father founded,” said Jimenez’s lawyer, former solicitor general Frank Chavez.

Jimenez said he has donated a billion pesos to Hulog ng Langit Foundation which used the money to purchase relief goods for typhoon stricken areas in Central Luzon and Northern Luzon, among others.

As far as the estafa case against his children is concerned, Jimenez said he is not seeking the recovery of his money but his honor as their father.