Caloocan bet denies link to SUV loaded with shabu

MANILA, Philippines - Ang Galing Pinoy party-list Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo’s former chief of staff, now running for Caloocan City vice mayor, denied yesterday allegations linking him to a government vehicle loaded with nine kilos of shabu, confiscated during a P50-million drug bust in Makati City.

Antonio Mariano Almeda, who is running under United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), made the denial in a statement coursed through his lawyer Jay Flaminiano.

“Reports linking my name to the Mitsubishi Pajero (SEP-825) found in the garage of an American who was arrested for illegal possession of drugs comes as a complete surprise to me,” he said.

“I do not know this American national Brian Hill.  I have never met him. I never delivered the Pajero to him. I have never been to his residence.  I have no idea how he came to possess the Pajero or how the Pajero wound up in his garage,” Almeda added.

Almeda said that sometime in 2008, the National Power Corp. (Napocor) lent the Pajero to the office of Arroyo in his capacity then as vice chairman of the joint congressional power committee. “The Napocor-owned vehicle was intended for my official use in my visits to various Napocor sites all over the country,” he said.

He said he returned the vehicle to Napocor after he stopped working for Arroyo at the end of 2009. He said that “as far as I (can) recall, I ordered my driver to return the Pajero and was given a checklist by Napocor as proof of delivery of the Pajero.”

Almeda cited a purported Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (PNP-AIDSOTF) report stating that the Napocor-owned Pajero was “last seen (at) nightclubs in August 2010 somewhere in Manila and it was not Almeda who was using it.”

Flaminiano said they will not initiate any meeting with the PNP-AIDSOTF, but instead will wait for the police anti-drug unit to coordinate with them.

Napocor: Let’s see checklist

Napocor president Froilan Tampinco, in a phone interview yesterday, belied Almeda’s statement.

“We had been trying to recover the Pajero in the past two years,” he said.

In May 2011, Napocor filed a formal complaint before the PNP’s Highway Patrol Group in an attempt to secure a hold order or recall of the Pajero.

Napocor vice president Melchor Ridulme, in a statement, said they “maintain our position that the vehicle loaned to Attorney Almeda was never returned to (Napocor), which is why we will be interested to see the checklist he claims was given to him as proof he returned the Pajero, and the details thereof.”

He pointed out that what is clear from Almeda’s statement “is that he already admitted to receiving the Pajero from (Napocor) in 2008.”

Sanctions?

Caloocan Rep. Oscar Malapitan, who is running for mayor, said he believes Almeda is saying the truth but left it to his running mate to clear his name on the incident.

When asked whether sanctions, including the possibility of being booted out of the party, would be imposed on Almeda, UNA secretary general Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco sanctions would be imposed only if a formal complaint will be lodged against Almeda, and the party will have to evaluate the case.

He added they will not tolerate candidates running under the UNA banner getting involved in such cases and will decide accordingly.

Almeda, together with seven other candidates for the second district seat in Caloocan, lost in the 2010 polls won by Mary Mitzi Cajayon of the Nacionalista Party by a margin of about 42,000 votes. – With Jerome Morales