Scam witness flees to hospital

Sen. Richard Gordon said yesterday the Senate will place businessman Jaime Paule, the alleged liaison officer of Malacañang linked to the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, under “hospital arrest.”

In a press conference, Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said the Senate sergeant-at-arms will serve the arrest order at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City where Paule was reportedly brought due to a “blocked carotid.”

“I was informed that he is in the hospital. If he is in the hospital, we will serve the arrest order there. He will be placed under hospital arrest if he wants,” Gordon said, adding that the Senate has given Paule a chance to apologize.

He said the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSSA) has yet to verify whether Paule is indeed at the hospital.

Gordon said 18 members of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee have signed the resolution citing the businessman in contempt for falsely and evasively testifying during the hearings on Jan. 20 and 26.

He said Paule aggravated his lies when he implied that the photograph presented to him during a committee hearing was fabricated by modern techniques.

“For his blatant show of disrespect during the hearing of Jan. 26, 2009 when presented by the chairman with photographic evidence, he had the gall and the temerity to deny the authenticity of the photograph even when four other witnesses had testified that the event captured therein indeed transpired,” Gordon said.

He said the Senate will wait for Paule’s release from the hospital.

Legal remedies

Paule’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, on the other hand, confirmed that his client was still confined at the hospital.

He said the arrest order was illegal and that they will question it before the Supreme Court.

“If the purpose is to compel Mr. Paule to give information, then the order of arrest is futile as the investigation into the so-called Fertilizer Fund Scam has been terminated,” Topacio said.

He added that if the purpose of the Senate is to punish his client for purportedly lying under oath, then he must be afforded a proper trial with all the safeguards provided for under the law. “Otherwise, the act of the Senate is unconstitutional and therefore invalid. We shall resort to all legal remedies under our laws to protect Mr. Paule’s rights,” he said.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, for his part, said Paule must be given all the “leeway to question our conduct.”

“We are not infallible. I encourage them to go to courts so that we will have rules of the game, so to speak, established by our Supreme Court,” Enrile said, adding he is not at all surprised if Paule has remained evasive.

In the Jan. 26 hearing, Paule repeatedly denied knowing Maylene Araos, Feshan Philippines president Julie Gregorio, and Feshan vice president Reden Antolin, even as he was shown a photo where he was with them during Leonicia Llarena’s birthday celebration.

He also denied having any part in the planning and implementation of the project, even when Araos, Llanera and Marites Aytona all pointed to him as the one giving out orders to them.

Aytona told the senators that it was Paule who would tell which foundations would be accredited for the project and that other instructions in its implementation would come from him.

Llanera, owner of Dane Publishing, also testified that it was Paule who approached him to seek assistance in issuing checks for the project.

Both Llanera and Paule and their respective families had been friends for some time.

Araos, for her part, admitted she was ordered by Paule to open a bank account for Feshan Philippines, the biggest supplier of the project, and sign blank checks for the firm, threatening her that she would lose her job if she refused to do so.

Other evidences against Paule include at least three Feshan checks endorsed to him as proven by the markings “c/o Mr. Paule” written at the back. – Arnell Ozaeta