$2-M extortion raps vs Nani to be pursued

MANILA, Philippines – The Ombudsman upheld yesterday the filing of criminal charges against former justice secretary Hernando Perez, his wife, and two others in connection with allegations that they extorted $2 million from former Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez.

The case was the first major corruption scandal under the Arroyo administration, and the first involving a Cabinet secretary.

Giving weight to the money trail, the Ombudsman denied for lack of merit attempts by Perez to have the charges dismissed after Jimenez withdrew his complaint.

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez also ordered that Perez be charged with falsification of public documents for his non-disclosure in his 2001 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) of his and his wife’s $1.7-million bank deposits.

Charged with Perez before the Sandiganbayan for extortion and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or Republic Act 3019 are his wife Rosario, brother-in-law Ramon Arceo and business associate Ernest Escaler.

“After a perspicacious review of the records, the undersigned found nothing that would indicate that there is reason to disturb the earlier findings of the special panel,” Gutierrez said.

“An affidavit of desistance carries no persuasive effect, especially when executed as an afterthought,” the Ombudsman ruled.

Gutierrez worked as Perez’s undersecretary when he was the justice secretary in 2001.

The anti-graft body reiterated its original findings issued on Jan. 8, 2007 justifying the filing of criminal cases against the four.

The special Ombudsman panel concluded that Perez, “in conspiracy with Escaler, Arceo, and his wife Rosario, took advantage of his position as the then DOJ Secretary by demanding Jimenez to deliver the amount of $2 million in connection with the execution of affidavits to be used in the case against the former President Estrada.”

Perez had asked the Ombudsman to reconsider its ruling saying it “failed to take judicial notice of the findings of the Regional Trial Court of Batangas.”

In rejecting Perez’s motion, the Ombudsman explained that “the ruling of the trial court finding the public utterances or remarks of Jimenez as derogatory could not affect the criminal complaints pending before the Office of the Ombudsman.”

On Oct. 2, 2007, Jimenez executed an affidavit of desistance to “withdraw and dismiss unconditionally and with prejudice all the charges against the respondents in the above-entitled cases.” Two days later, Perez filed a Motion to Dismiss, which Gutierrez also rejected.

In denying the motion, the Ombudsman cited Sec.4 (d) of Administrative Order No. 7, which stipulates that “no motion to dismiss shall be allowed except for lack of jurisdiction.”

In his complaint-affidavit, Jimenez claimed he was “forced to come across with $2 million” after Perez “threatened and intimidated me and my family with bodily harm and incarceration in a city jail with hardened criminals and drug addicts unless I execute damaging affidavits against President Estrada and his cronies and associates.”

Jimenez, who himself was jailed in the US for illegal campaign contribution, revealed that he deposited the funds in Coutts Bank, Hong Kong, in February 2001.

“The denial of Perez cannot overcome the positive assertion of Jimenez, more so that the charges were substantiated with convincing evidence,” the Ombudsman said in a 66-page resolution last year.

Records showed that Jimenez transferred $2 million on Feb. 23, 2001 in beneficiary account HO133706 to Coutts Bank in Hong Kong. The money came from Trade and Commerce Bank, Cayman Islands through the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, according to the panel.

“No specific denial was made that Jimenez, in accordance with the instructions of Escaler, did transmit the $2 million to the account, and subsequently, Escaler transmitted the $1.7 million to Arceo-Rosario and the $250,000 to Arceo through a cheque or bank draft.”

The panel ruled that Escaler, owner of the HK Coutts Bank Account that was the initial transferee of the Jimenez fund, gave “no explanation to show that the transfer to his account was the outcome of a legitimate transaction with Jimenez.”

The Ombudsman also said that the Perez couple’s declaration that the funds were proceeds of the sale of their Batangas property, Malvarosa Ventures Inc., to Escaler was inconsistent with an earlier claim by Rosario and Arceo that the money was a family inheritance.

Investigators also said the memorandum of understanding outlining the alleged property transaction between Perez and Escaler was “not notarized” and that it was a “mere private instrument” that did not prove the sale of Malvarosa.

The Ombudsman said the money trail showed “united, concerted and coordinated acts of unlawfully taking the money of Jimenez, which indicate a working conspiracy” among the accused.

“Arceo and Rosario are not strangers to Perez . . . all of them were privy and their acts were interdependent with each other (and the money was) acquired through illegal means during the incumbency of Perez.”

It was earlier held that Jimenez brokered for the $470-million power contract with Argentine firm Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima or IMPSA for which he received $2 million. He denied the allegations.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism said that four days after the Arroyo government came to power in 2001, Perez issued a ruling that paved the way for IMPSA’s bagging the controversial rehabilitation of the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan hydropower plant in Laguna.