Ombudsman steps into Lacson probe

The Ombudsman has created a three-member panel to investigate allegations that opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson maintained multimillion-dollar accounts in foreign banks allegedly to launder proceeds from criminal activities.

Overall Deputy Ombudsman Margarito Gervacio Jr. said Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, who has undergone cataract surgery, has designated graft investigator James Viernes to head the panel.

The panel was given 30 days to determine if there was probable cause to charge Lacson, his wife Alice, former President Joseph Estrada and his wife, Sen. Luisa Ejercito for allegedly amassing ill-gotten wealth and laundering the money abroad.

"Under our (Office of the Ombudsman’s) charter, we can initiate motu propio investigation even if based solely on reports of alleged graft or criminal activity of go-vernment officials, and that is what we have done here," Gervacio said.

He also revealed that they would seek the assistance of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), an organization of ombudsmen worldwide, since the money was allegedly laundered through banks in the United States, Canada and Hong Kong.

"I believe we can get assistance. The president or the secretary general of the IOI, who is from Quebec, Canada, has made a statement to the effect that we should all help in the fight against money-laundering," Gervacio said.

The Canada-based IOI, according to Desierto, is "an aggrupation of Ombudsman offices in Europe" while the Ombudsman of the Philippines belongs to the Pakistan-based Asian Ombudsman Association.

Gervacio said the Ombudsman will try to talk with Col. Victor Corpus, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), to find out what evidence he has against Lacson and the Estradas.

Since the panel was formed on Sunday, when the scandal broke out, Gervacio presumed Viernes and his team had already some of the evidence that Corpus has repeatedly insisted that he had.

However, Gervacio, apparently unapprised of the panel’s actions, could not specify what evidence the team already had in its possession.

The deputy ombudsman also refused to say what charges would be filed against the two couples since the investigation panel had only recently been formed.

However, the office of US Rep. Dana Rohrabacher confirmed that US authorities are indeed cooperating with the Philippine government in the investigation but declined to reveal details.

A senior aide of Rohrabacher said they expect the investigation to take several weeks or months but maintained they would ask for a briefing once the US investigations are over.

Corpus had claimed on Sunday that the Lacsons and the Estradas funneled more than $700 million in profits from drug deals, kidnappings and other criminal activities in the Philippines to various accounts in banks in New York, Las Vegas, Canada and Hong Kong.

Corpus said they gathered evidence in a recent trip to the US and released bank account numbers under several banks. One of the banks — Citibank of Hong Kong — however, denied the existence of an account owned by Lacson or Estrada.

On the other hand, an unspecified Bank of America branch in California confirmed that Lacson’s wife did have an account with them but that it was inactive.