Bagwoman tags Mikey, Iggy

Presidential relatives implicated in the jueteng scandal had noted that previously nothing had linked them directly to illegal gambling payoffs. Now a woman has come forward to provide the missing link.

Sandra Cam, implicated in the testimony of a jueteng whistle-blower at the Senate earlier this week, claimed yesterday that she acted as the bagwoman for President Arroyo’s son, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, and her brother-in-law Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo.

At Malacañang, the President has ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct "a full and transparent investigation" of the charges against Mikey and Iggy Arroyo.

"Nobody in my family or among my kin are above the law," the President said in a statement released by Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye.

"And no investigator or prosecutor should fear to uphold the law against them. I shall stand for justice, no matter who gets hurt," Mrs. Arroyo said.

Fearing for her life, Cam is now under the protection of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., where she appeared and dropped her bombshell on the news program "TV Patrol" on ABS-CBN last night.

"All I ask is protection in case it comes to the point they will arrest me, and I will be forced to speak out the truth," she told the station.

Cam is among the witnesses summoned to testify in the Senate’s third inquiry on the involvement of government officials in the jueteng protection racket. Her name was mentioned by witness Richard Garcia during his testimony at the Senate last Monday.

Cam told "TV Patrol" that Mikey and Iggy Arroyo each received P500,000 a month from jueteng operations in the Bicol Region when retired Chief Superintendent Restituto Mosqueda was regional police director.

Mosqueda is personally known to Iggy Arroyo, she added.

Mosqueda was then chief of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory when the "Jose Pidal" controversy broke out. He testified before the Senate that the Jose Pidal specimen signatures on several bank documents presented to the chamber was not that of Iggy Arroyo.

Cam said she had been acting as conduit for jueteng payoffs between Mosqueda and Mikey and Iggy Arroyo since August 2004, delivering cash divided into bundles of P500 bills every second week of the month at their offices at the House of Representatives in Quezon City.

Speaking in Filipino, Cam said she received the payoff from Mosqueda in the form of checks drawn from his bank account in Camarines Sur.

She showed "TV Patrol" copies of the checks bearing the signature of Mosqueda.

However, Cam said the jueteng payola of Mikey and Iggy Arroyo had been reduced to P400,000 each after Bicol was devastated by a typhoon sometime ago.

"When I gave it to Iggy at his office, he told me, ‘Why is this less than P100,000?’" she said. "And I told him the payola was cut by General Mosqueda because of the typhoon."

Cam said Iggy retorted: "Tell your boss, walang bagyo-bagyo sa akin. Ang pinag-usapan ay pinag-usapan (Tell your boss, I don’t care that there was a typhoon. A deal is a deal)."

‘Notorious For Muckraking’

Reached by "TV Patrol" for their reactions, Mosqueda and Iggy Arroyo vehemently denied the accusations of Cam.

Mosqueda said Cam was "notoriously" known in Bicol for her alleged "muckraking activity" against her enemies, and that she considers him as a "political enemy."

Cam was being used by his enemies to discredit him, especially now that he is a civilian, he added.

In a separate interview with "TV Patrol," Iggy Arroyo said he personally knew Mosqueda because he had cleared his name in the Jose Pidal case.

"Yes, I know him (Mosqueda)," he said.

"If you remember, in the Jose Pidal (case), where I was falsely accused, he testified, and I also met him in purely social functions."

Asked to comment on Cam’s accusations, Iggy Arroyo said he found Cam’s statement funny, especially her remarks about the typhoon in Bicol.

"People who know me don’t know me to speak that way," he said before the telephone connection was cut off for unknown reasons.

When "TV Patrol" got him back on the air, Iggy Arroyo became more combative.

"So I categorically say I don’t know Cam," he said. "I never met her. She never went to my office. If she said those things against me when she has no (parliamentary) immunity, I also plan to file a libel case against her because she made accusations directly, which are not true at all, and were all very libelous statements."

However, Iggy Arroyo said he was willing to clear his name before the Senate.

Reached by The STAR last night, Mikey Arroyo said he was not able to see the "TV Patrol" interview with Cam because he was attending session at the House.

"Hindi ko kilala yun (I don’t know her)," he said.

He laughed off the much-publicized construction of his new house in La Vista, Quezon City, saying all his properties were properly declared in his annual statement of assets and liabilities.

"Mas malaki pa ang mansion ni Erap dun (Erap’s house is bigger)," he said.

Mikey Arroyo said he had not talked with his mother about the latest exposé, saying they never discuss those things in the family.

The following is Mikey’s statement on Cam’s testimony:

"As expected, another guided missile has been unleashed against myself and my family. I expected this because the two witnesses who had earlier sought to drag me into the jueteng controversy have been thorough discredited by subsequent testimony.

"These witnesses have failed to provide any shred of acceptable evidence, and have resorted to hearsay to back their false and malicious allegations. Our fellow lawmakers in the Senate have even decried the hearsay fest to which the joint committee proceedings in jueteng have degenerated.

"Now there is a new person making the same allegations based on second-hand information and false testimony. We also expect the sponsors of the jueteng witnesses in tomorrow’s hearings to again seek to link me to illegal gambling. These malicious allegations are absolutely false. We will disprove them in the proper forum, and we are confident that we will be vindicated before our people.

"If there is something to be happy about, it is that the new accomplices in their mud-slinging exercise today chose to air her accusations outside the halls of the Senate, and without immunity. I have instructed my lawyer to immediately gather all evidence against this person so the necessary cases can be filed to make her accountable for her lies."

Meanwhile, a fourth whistle-blower will explode a bombshell when the Senate holds its third inquiry on the involvement of top government officials in jueteng today.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday the new witness will name "officials at the high echelons of the government" who have received millions of pesos in payoffs from the jueteng protection racket.

"Barring unforeseen circumstances, there will be a nuclear explosion at the jueteng investigation by a witness who will directly link some people who have not yet been named in the last two investigations," he said.

He was able to talk to the new witness after an emissary contacted him to testify before the Senate, he added.

Pimentel said the new witness has the caliber of bank executive Clarissa Ocampo, who testified at the Senate impeachment trial in 2000 that President Joseph Estrada signed bank documents as "Jose Velarde" when he opened an account with Equitable PCI Bank.

"(This) could even be more devastating because Clarissa talked about signatures, this one will talk about the money being received directly," he said.

However, Pimentel refused to answer questions from reporters about whether the witness would link the President, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo or their eldest son the congressman to the jueteng scandal.

"You will know by tomorrow," he said.

Pimentel said Wilfredo "Boy Bicol" Mayor, Richard "RJ" Garcia, and Demosthenes Abraham "Abe" Riva, whom Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan Oscar Cruz had earlier presented before the Senate, could have not gained credible information about jueteng and its players if they were not part of the illegal operation.

"Can you have a witness involved in jueteng who is not shady?" he said. "In life, no killer always kills or liars always tell a lie. In other words, there are times when a liar says the truth."

Asked if the testimony of the new witness would hold water in court, Pimentel said: "Yes, but in court as you very well know, you have to balance the testimony of the one who is saying he/she handed the money and the denial (of the accused)."

Senate President Franklin Drilon said the jueteng investigation will continue even after Congress had adjourned session yesterday. "The two chairs and committees would have to decide if there is a need for additional hearings," he said. "That is completely within the discretion of the committees."

In today’s hearing, the Senate committees of public order, and games and amusement will summon at least 21 personalities, including seven police officials: Director Simeon Dizon, former PNP director for police regional office IX; Superintendent Antonio Billones, acting PNP director for PRO IX; Senior Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, Superintendent Pierre Bucsit, Senior Superintendent Pat Hernandez, retired Deputy Directors General Enrique Galang and Victor Luga.

Also summoned were former presidential assistant for Bicol Affairs Mario Espinosa, Gov. Ma. Elena Palma Gil, former PAGCOR chairwoman Alice Reyes, NBI witness Nante Bodino, one Maning Herrera of Cotabato, and Edwin Romero alias ‘Bertex." — With reports from Christina Mendez, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Evelyn Macairan, Mike Frialde