Lawyer denies Marcoses' hand in Duterte-Bautista meeting

MANILA, Philippines — A person who has a close relationship with President Rodrigo Duterte arranged for him to meet the wife of Commission on Elections chief Andres Bautista.

The lawyer of Bautista's estranged wife, Patricia Cruz-Bautista, confirmed this on Tuesday to deny reports that it was former Sen. Bongbong Marcos' wife, Louise "Liza" Araneta-Marcos, who reached out to Duterte.

"It wasn't Tita Liza who set the meeting. If it were her, I would've told you so, but it wasn't her. I just want to protect the identity of our friend who helped us set the meeting with the president," Martin Loon, Patricia's legal counsel, said on ANC's "Headstart."

The Marcoses were tagged in the scandal after Patricia made public her accusations of unexplained wealth against Bautista. Bongbong's electoral protest case claiming that he lost his vice presidential bid to Leni Robredo through fraud is pending before the Supreme Court, which sits as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

Loon said on Tuesday morning that while he could not yet divulge who arranged the meeting between Duterte and Patricia, he was someone "very close to the president."

Patricia, meanwhile, said she is not at all acquainted with Araneta-Marcos.

Patricia sought to face the president in late July to inform him of her discovery of passbooks and records of transactions purportedly by her husband, who led the agency going after ill-gotten wealth of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos before he was appointed to Comelec.

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For Patricia, going to the president was a last resort.

She explained that when she was looking into her husband's finances and going over ways to be legally separated from him, she sought the assistance of law firms and government officials, many of whom are connected to her husband.

"So the ombudsman, justices, senators—my own experience going to the big law firms... they refuse to touch it," Patricia said. "So I had to go to somebody who was not corruptible."

She said she is only after transparency on her husband's part about their true net worth.

"So I only want what is legally mine as a wife of 17 years with four children. My main concern was to basically find out what really is our finances—which belongs to us and which don't. I wasn't getting any straight answer from Andy (Bautista)," she said.

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Bautista, meanwhile, said Patricia's actions smack of blackmail and extortion as she demands a staggering P620 million for her and her children. He also denied that his wealth is much bigger than his publicly declared P176 million in his government record.

Patricia claimed that Bautista invented the P620-million figure, as she was asking for only P260 million. But the elections official stood by it.

"Itong P620 (million) came from her lawyer, Attorney Martin Loon, and very specifically the way it was presented to us, she wanted P200 (million) for her, P75 (million) each for the children, plus the two condominum units, which is P120 (million)," Bautista said in a radio interview on Tuesday.

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Bautista said that not long after, Loon jacked up the amount being demanded as settlement.

"Loon corrected, hindi pala P200 (million) for her, P300 (million), so (the total) became P720 (million)," he said.

Bautista claimed that he and his sister received a text message from Loon warning him that his wife would go to Duterte if the amount was not settled.

"I didn't think that she would do it. but it happened. It could be a form of extortion," he said.

After a few months, Bautista found himself also talking to Duterte, whom he likened to a mediator and marriage counselor during their meeting at Malacañang last week.

Bautista, an impeachable official, is now facing an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation and possible congressional inquiries into his supposed false declaration in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. — Camille Diola