Sandigan sets Nani arraignment on May 16

MANILA, Philippines – The Sandiganbayan has set the arraignment of former justice secretary Hernando Perez, his wife and two others on May 16 on graft and extortion raps filed against them by the Ombudsman. 

Sandiganbayan first division chair and presiding Justice Diosdado Peralta also required Perez, his wife Rosario, brother-in-law Ramon Arceo, and business associate Ernest Escaler to submit their pleas on the charges of violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Aside from violation of RA 3019, the four are also facing charges of extortion. A separate case of falsification of public documents has been filed against Perez for his failure to declare in his 2001 statement of assets and liabilities the $1.7 million deposited in his and his wife’s bank accounts.

The cases stemmed from allegations by former Manila congressman Mark Jimenez that Perez and his three co-accused extorted $2 million from him in 2001.

Court officials explained the arraignment proceedings will set the stage for a full trial of the four by the first division of the anti-graft court. Escaler last Monday posted P130,000 bail.

Perez and his wife earlier asked the Sandiganbayan to suspend its proceedings on their case at least until the Supreme Court decides on their petition to stop the Ombudsman from pursuing the charges since Jimenez had already withdrawn his complaint.

Jimenez, in his original complaint, 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.”

The Ombudsman early last week upheld the filing of criminal cases against the four, saying the withdrawal of Jimenez’s complaint would not make a dent on the charges.

“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 resolution.

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

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

He subsequently transferred $1.7 million to the accounts of the Perezes.

The Perez couple originally declared that the money represented Rosario’s family inheritance. But in a subsequent affidavit, they said the funds were proceeds of the sale of their Batangas property, Malvarosa Ventures Inc., to Escaler. They said a memorandum of understanding should prove the sale.

But investigators said the MOU was “not notarized” and that it was just a “mere private instrument” that did not prove the sale of Malvarosa.

 “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,” the Ombudsman resolution said.