Reactions to ‘Scheming scumbags’

We received over a hundred emails and letters in reaction to our Aug. 9 column, “Scheming scumbags.” In that article we wrote about financial schemes and scams which have defrauded a lot of people of their hard-earned money. We recalled previous scams that came before Francswiss and PIPC, among them Multitel of the so-called “Pyramid Queen” Rose Baladjay, and the Bank Capital Development Corp. scandal which happened in the early ’90s where Marilyn Nite, Nunelon Bradley and Vicky Magalona-Escalambre were implicated.

One that stood out was a strongly-worded letter from feisty lawyer and former Solicitor General Frank Chavez, counsel for Vicky Magalona-Escalambre. In his letter, Atty. Chavez wrote that “the case is still pending trial as of this writing” and anything that seeks to ascribe the involvement of Ms. Escalambre in the Bancap scam is “baseless if not altogether illogical.”

He cites several reasons why his client is entitled to “no less than an acquittal, and we are printing portions of it even if Atty. Chavez himself cautions that we should not “preempt the judge.”

“First, not one among the nine witnesses for the prosecution has pointed to and positively identified Ms. Escalambre as responsible for the crimes with which she stands charged…

“Second, the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses have absolutely no probative value against Ms. Escalambre. In fact, of the nine witnesses who testified for the prosecution, only the testimonies of two witnesses relate, albeit remotely, to Ms. Escalambre.”

Atty. Chavez further asserts that “the prosecution failed to prove the elements of the crimes” with which his client is charged, arguing that “there is no proof that Ms. Escalambre traded in questionable Treasury Bills” but on the contrary, the evidence of the prosecution proves that “it was Bancap itself, not Ms. Escalambre, that initiated the trading of these T-bills by offering and confirming sales of these T-bills...”

(There are indications that Ms. Escalambre and others were just the scapegoats. People say there is an alleged “bigger fish” who is the mastermind.)

“While we deplore schemes and other machinations that victimize ‘the small, honest people,’ it is simply not fair to ascribe any wrongdoing to any person – such as Ms. Escalambre, in this case – whose culpability in a crime has yet to be established with finality in a court of law.”

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On the other side of the coin are reactions from majority of outraged email senders who believe it is about time something is done about these financial scams. These readers expressed sentiments similar to the email sent by Mr. Lito Pedrosa, portions of which we are quoting as follows:

“As usual, you (Babe) hit the nail right on the head… on the Bancap and PIPC scams. The common denominator is, unless something radical is done, the ‘scambags’ will get away with it. The difference though is that Bancap transactions were usual trade activities that banks enter into – for instance sale with repurchase of government securities under a custodianship arrangement (no ordinary rate differentials) whereas the PIPC affair is the same lemming-like cycle.

“Victims are ‘greedy-greedy’ – they know it is a pyramid and they hope to be out by the time it collapses but the ‘Big G’ keeps them rolling their funds over. Then all of a sudden, misery. Despite their greed, it really makes your heart go out for them.

“By the way, on the Bancap scam – nobody believes that Nite, Magalona and the other guy pulled that off all by themselves – there is a mastermind.

“Years ago, a businessman asked me whether he should invest with PIPC saying, ‘hindi naman mukhang scam, hindi masyadong mataas ang return.’ I told him to lay off. He came over to thank me last week.”

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