SEC chief's husband sold Pajero to Legacy lawyer

MANILA, Philippines - The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission has found herself in a similar predicament as embattled SEC Commissioner Jesus Martinez, as her husband was found to have sold a 1997 Mitsubishi Pajero to a lawyer of the debt-laden Legacy Group.

SEC Chairman Fe Barin admitted yesterday her husband, Energy Regulatory Commissioner Alejandro Barin Jr., sold their Pajero to Legacy Consolidated Plans legal counsel Christine Limpin, but stressed she had nothing to do with it.

Text rumors circulated that Barin’s husband had sold a Pajero to Limpin.

“Yes, it’s true, but documents would show I was not involved in this transaction. I don’t even know that girl. She has never approached me and my husband is banned at my office,” Barin said in a phone interview.

Barin, the latest government official to be implicated in the multi-billion Legacy scandal, said she is not privy to the details of this transaction, like how much the vehicle was sold for and to whom it was sold.

Records at the Land Transportation Office, however, showed that the Pajero is registered under Limpin’s name.

It remains uncertain whether it was the Legacy Group or Limpin who paid for the car.

Limpin is one of the respondents in the string of criminal complaints lodged by the SEC before the Department of Justice.

Barin said that her husband and Legacy Group chairman Celso de los Angeles know each other.

Barin said this latest attack is part of a sinister plot to discredit and oust her from office.

“I don’t understand why they are doing all these. Anything they can throw at me just to get me, they will do it,” Barin said.

“This is the kind of relationship I have with my husband. Anything I should tell him as a wife I do but anything that concerns my work, I don’t think there is a need for him to know and he can’t ask about it. I won’t tell him and he is banned in the office,” Barin further said.

Despite all the criticisms hurled against her, Barin said she would not resign unless it’s President Arroyo herself who will ask her to go.

Martinez also came under fire from lawmakers for his alleged involvement in the cover-up of the financial problems of the Legacy Group and for receiving a house and lot and cash from the collapsed investment group.

The house and lot in Parañaque worth P3.2 million was paid for by the Legacy Group but its ownership was transferred to Martinez’s son.

Martinez also allegedly received a check worth P1.475 million issued by the Rural Bank of San Juan – one of the rural banks under the Legacy Group – to pay for the Ford Expedition that the bank supposedly acquired from Martinez.

It was learned that the Ford Expedition was owned by Martinez’s son.