Espiritu gets death threats, flees to US

Former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu left with his wife yesterday for the United States after receiving death threats following his testimony at President Estrada’s impeachment trial.

Espiritu and his wife Lydia boarded Northwest Airlines Flight No. 026 for Los Angeles, California via Osaka, Japan which took off at 10:36 a.m. from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Espiritu left for the US even as prosecution panel member and Makati Rep. Joker Arroyo charged that people close to Malacañang are trying to prevent some witnesses from testifying for the prosecution.

Arroyo admitted that the 11-member House prosecution panel has already lost one witness because Malacañang allegedly "cajoled" him out of testifying.

But Arroyo said he remained confident that most of their witnesses will push through with their testimonies although previous witnesses, like Espiritu, have received death threats.

Private prosecutor and former Batangas Rep. Hernando Perez confirmed that Espiritu had received death threats and said he advised the former Cabinet member to temporarily leave the country.

"I actually advised him to do that because he has been getting several death threats. Some people want him dead because of the damaging testimony he gave in the Senate," said Perez, who conducted Espiritu’s direct examination at the trial.

Perez said he and Espiritu had been receiving threatening telephone calls at their homes and offices since Wednesday morning warning them not to testify against Mr. Estrada.

But Espiritu persisted in testifying and told the impeachment court on Thursday that Mr. Estrada last year admitted that he had made huge profits from trading in shares of Best World Resources Corp.

"Malaki na ang kinikita ko dito sa BW shares (I have made a lot of money from the BW shares)," he quoted the President as saying.

Espiritu, who traces his friendship with the President back to when Mr. Estrada was still mayor of San Juan, was instrumental during the President’s campaign in 1998.

He was named finance secretary when Mr. Estrada assumed office in June 30, 1998 until he resigned on Jan. 5 last year, just as the BW scandal was simmering into crisis proportions.

On his second day of testimony on Friday, Espiritu testified that the Philippine National Bank granted a P600-million loan to cash-strapped Best World Resources at the behest of the President.

Being finance secretary and a respected veteran banker, Espiritu said he opposed granting the loan because he claimed BW did not meet the usual credit standards.

He also claimed he may have angered the President when he vehemently opposed a proposal by presidential friend and tycoon Lucio Tan to merge PNB with Allied Bank, which is owned by Tan.

"I was called by the President and he told me, ‘Ed, whatever Lucio wants, give it to him.’ Because of that, I made up my mind to resign," Espiritu said.

Aside from Tan, Espiritu claimed that he had also regularly seen big-time smugglers frequenting social functions in Malacañang but he declined to identify them because doing so was "risky."

Immediately after his Friday testimony, Espiritu told media that his wife Lydia had been crying for several days because she feared his testimony would endanger him and their family.

"My wife is suffering from all of these, and she is thankful that my testimony is over," Espiritu said, reiterating his testimony that he is fearful of the safety of his family.

At least two senators asked him to identify these smugglers but the former Cabinet member demurred, saying that he feared for his personal safety and that of his family.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago likewise urged her fellow senators-judges not to insist that Espiritu identify the alleged smugglers because Espiritu was visibly "emotionally distraught."

Through Espiritu’s testimony, the prosecution sought to prove that the President was guilty of betraying public trust when he allegedly used his office to assist a friend who is now linked to the biggest stock market scandal in Philippine business history.

The 11-member prosecution team from the House of Representatives meant to establish that Mr. Estrada intervened to clear Tan from charges of complicity in the BW scandal.

But the President’s defense panel dismissed Espiritu’s testimony.

"We did not even cross-examine him because as far as we are concerned, he did not damage the defense," said defense team member Raul Daza.

Daza said vital documents pertaining to the BW’s loan from PNB was not admitted as evidence.

Espiritu also told the tribunal that at about noontime of Friday, he received a telephone call from newly installed Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara.

Angara allegedly conveyed to him the President’s offer to settle a case involving his son John who is about to be charged in connection with an investment scandal involving Westmont Investment Corp. But Espiritu claimed he declined because the Espiritu family wanted the case resolved on its own merits.

He said he received similar messages from presidential friend Carmelo Santiago last Wednesday and from former Negros Oriental Rep. Miguel Romero and Roy Macasaet of the Philippine National Construction Corp. on Tuesday night.

Espiritu said because of the pressures, he became even more determined to testify.

He revealed that he divested himself of his corporate holdings when he was appointed finance secretary, although his son John retained a nominal stake in Westmont Bank to allow him to stay on the board. — With reports from Efren Danao, Liberty Dones