More fakery in chopper 'lease' of Mike, Iggy

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar, honest Abe Lincoln advised his fellow-lawyers.

Atty. Mike Arroyo had a nifty answer to a STAR exposé about him last Monday, August 15, 2011. It appeared that the former first gentleman had submitted to the Pasay City court a bogus lease of five helicopters from businessman Archibald Po. The “Aircraft Fleet Service Agreement” was supposed to be Mike’s proof in his P20-million lawsuit that Po lied to the Senate. Po had testified that two used choppers falsely sold to the police as brand new in 2009 were among the five that Mike imported in 2004. Through the contract, Mike wanted to show that his LTA Inc. never bought but merely rented five aircraft from Po’s LionAir on March 16-May 15, 2004. Signatories were Mike’s brother Ignacio T. Arroyo as LTA Inc. president, and Renato Sia as LionAir corporate secretary.

There was a hitch, though. Atty. Lope M. Velasco notarized the lease contract in Makati City on March 16, 2004. But Sia’s residence certificate No. 10579800F was issued only on April 2, 2004. By some magic the notarizing was done a good two weeks before Sia got a cedula. In short, the lease looked simulated. Mike appeared to have committed the very offenses he was accusing Po of: false testimony, perjury in solemn affirmation, and offering false testimony in evidence.

The day the exposé broke, Atty. Andresito Fornier came to Mike’s rescue. Presenting himself as Ignacio’s lawyer, he told reporters there was a typo error. Allegedly Attorney Velasco has qualified to them that Sia’s cedula is, umm, dated March 2, not April 2, 2004. Velasco’s correction was dated August 15, 2011.

Lawyer-friends phoned the whole of yesterday on reading Fornier’s claim. (He was last heard from in 2003, during the failed debarring of a leading presidential candidate, using forged American citizenship records.) The lawyers asked: why make a correction only seven years after the fact, on the same day the fakery was exposed? Why is the eight-page contract signed by Ignacio but not by Sia on every page as notary rules require? Why doesn’t it have Ignacio’s cedula or other ID? Why are the two spaces for witnesses blank?

The truth is in the cedula booklet in Pasay where Sia got it. Also, in Attorney Velasco’s notary submissions to the Makati regional court and the Supreme Court in 2004. It will surely out.

But Mike’s evidence of lease, as signed by brother Ignacio, seems to contain more fakery. Like, it lists five Robinson helicopters supposedly to be loaned by LionAir to LTA Inc., specifically the ones with Philippine registration and corresponding manufacturer serial numbers:

• RP-C 2779 (S.N. 1370),

• RP-C 2780 (S.N. 1371),

• RP-C 2781 (S.N. 1372),

• RP-C 2782 (S.N. 1373),

• RP-C 2783 (S.N. 1374)

From Customs records, the first two choppers, S.N. 1370 and 1371, arrived at Clark Freeport on March 12, 2004. The second two, S.N. 1372 and 1373, arrived on March 17, 2004. The last unit, S.N. 1374, arrived on March 24, 2004. Even if a helicopter breezes through Customs, it would still take a week to reassemble and test-fly it.

Question: how could Mike or Ignacio lease on March 16, 2004, five choppers that had yet to be delivered to the Philippines, cleared by Customs, reassembled and test-flown starting on March 12, 17 and 24, 2004?

From five certificates issued by the Air Transport Office, S.N. 1370 and 1371 were registered as RP-C 2779 and RP-C 2780 on March 16, 2004. S.N. 1372 and 1373 became RP-C 2781 and RP-C 2782 on March 23, 2004. S.N. 1374 became RP-C 2783 on March 30, 2004.

Again, question: how could Mike and Ignacio list in their lease of March 16, 2004, the registration of five aircraft that had yet to be assigned such numbers?

Po had attached the five certificates of registration to his affidavit at the Senate. Mike’s lawyers obtained copies, and presented these to court along with the infirm lease. Mike got burnt. This is not to say he should fire his lawyers. It’s just to say that the lawyers too have some explaining to do, in court and in the Senate. That goes for Ignacio as well; having joined the fray, he cannot invoke anymore inter-parliamentary courtesy as a congressman to avoid being subpoenaed to the Senate.

Rowena del Rosario, Mike’s personal bookkeeper since 2001, also must appear once and for all. There she must explain the discrepancies between the bank records and the supposed P9.8-million “lease”:

• Why did LTA Inc. pay US manufacturer Robinson, not local distributor LionAir, for the “lease”?

• Why remit dollars for the “lease,” when the contract quotes pesos?

• Why pay nine times more than the contract amount — specifically $500,000 on December 11, 2003; $408,067.06 on February 27, 2004; $509,056.41 also on February 27, 2004; and $148,271.53 on March 1, 2004 — a total of $1,565,395 or P86,096,725 (at $1:P55)?

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