Mike A denies hand in Malampaya fund mess

MANILA, Philippines - Former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo accused yesterday Justice Secretary Leila de Lima of insinuating maliciously that he got portions of the Malampaya fund.

“What’s that, guilty by association?” he asked. “I had nothing to do with the Malampaya fund. I don’t even know Napoles,” referring to Janet Lim-Napoles, alleged mastermind of a large-scale government fund scam.

Arroyo said the last time he saw Ruby Tuason – one of the names mentioned in the controversy – was in June 2008 at the wake of his cousin Carlos Tuason.

“I never dealt with Ruby Tuason,” he said.

Carlos and Ruby had been separated way back when she was working as a social secretary of  then President Joseph Estrada, he added.

On Thursday, the Department of Justice charged Ruby Tuason, along with former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and 22 others, with plunder in connection with the  alleged misuse of some P900 million in Malampaya funds through bogus non-government organizations of Napoles.

Arroyo’s spokesman Ferdinand Topacio said De Lima is the chief inquisitor of the administration’s witch-hunt.

“And once more, it is once again making use of discredited methods of persecution such as innuendo, half-truths, convoluted logic and guilt by association, to pursue this nefarious end,” he said.

Topacio said Arroyo’s relationship with Ruby is one merely of affinity, not of blood.

“Since the couple’s separation, whatever connections Arroyo may have had with Ruby may be deemed to have been severed,” he said.

“Thus, any insinuation that Attorney Arroyo may have been the recipient of any funds received by Ms. Tuason from Malampaya or any other source for that matter, is not only malicious and libelous, but fantastical and belongs in the realm of fiction.”

Topacio said De Lima’s latest attempt to link Arroyo to another scam before any proof has even been produced “is merely, to quote Shakespeare, ‘a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’.

“We appeal and challenge the present government to build its cases first, before shooting its mouth off, to avoid the hilarious spectacle of the courts rebuffing it at every turn whenever it touts the filing of cases against its perceived enemies,” he said.