It is amazing that this week Secretary of Justice Hernando Perez went on a 30-day leave of absence while allegations that he supposedly accepted a $2 million bribe from Rep. Mark Jimenez are investigated.
I say amazing because Perez has been relentless in hounding Jimenez and trying to get him deported to the United States where he is wanted for tax evasion, mail fraud and illegal political party contributions. I understand that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants Perez to be seen as being above all suspicion, especially when he heads the most important law enforcement government agency.
I say amazing because Jimenez is not exactly your run-of-the-mill politician. A businessman who had close connections to former President Joseph Estrada, Jimenez was able to run for Congress and be elected a representative of Manila, all the while being a wanted man in the United States. The Supreme Court is due to rule shortly on whether his deportation to the US can go ahead or not, and this sudden accusation of Perez supposedly accepting a $2 million bribe for getting the Arroyo administration to approve a contract with an Argentine firm, just seems too convenient to be true.
But with Perez still hounding Jimenez, could it be that he had really accepted the bribe? It doesn’t make any sense at all, and Jimenez hasn’t been able to back up his accusation by naming a bank account allegedly in Perez’s name that has $2 million in it. Jimenez mentioned a Coutts Bank account in Hong Kong, but that account turned out to be one of Ernest Escaler’s, a shady businessmen who was a go-between Jimenez and Perez last year when the Justice Department was trying to get Jimenez to testify against Estrada in his corruption trial.
Jimenez now admits wiring the $2 million from his bank account in Uruguay to Coutts in Hong Kong. There the money seems to have stayed. Jimenez himself admitted never receiving the 100 million pesos for his $2 million from Escaler, which he was supposed to receive for purportedly selling the dollars to him. Since that is the case, it is clear that the $2 million was meant as some sort of pay-off, and thus no pesos would ever be expected in return.
Perez has been one of the most aggressive and persistent justice secretaries in recent Philippine history, and his dogged pursuit of Jimenez must have greatly annoyed and scared the congressman. With no obvious skeletons in Perez’s closet, Jimenez has resorted to the age-old practice of slinging mud indiscriminately at one’s enemy, desperately hoping some of it will stick.
The problem with Jimenez’s allegations is that they are so hazy and unclear that they are almost impossible to believe. But I guess that is the purpose they serve. Like a whispering campaign of slander, such vague and wild accusations only serve to plant doubt in people’s mind about Perez’s integrity, which is a shame really. I don’t think President Arroyo should have suspended Perez. As usual, the president overreacted to a perceived possible public opinion backlash and quickly suspended the secretary of justice.
The ridiculous public circus of accusations and counter-accusations that the Philippines witnessed this past week in the Jimenez-Escaler-Perez feud would be laughable if it wasn’t so indicative of just how rotten Philippine politics has become. Too many politicians seem to have countless secret foreign bank accounts where they stash all their ill-gotten wealth. From Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the former head of the Philippine National Police, whose unexplained millions of dollars in US bank accounts are still being investigated, to Jimenez with his millions of dollars stashed around the world, a rotten smell is certainly emanating from Congress.
* * * *
Tempest in a teacup?
THE CONTROVERSIAL military Mutual Logistics and Support Agreement (MLSA) was quietly signed last week by the Philippines and the United States. Now assorted nationalists, including Vice President Teofisto Guingona, want the agreement scrutinized by senators before it is implemented by the Philippines.
Guingona said he is ready to testify in the Senate on the MLSA, and even have the Supreme Court look into it. The vice president is afraid that the agreement will possibly allow the Philippines to be drawn into an overseas war if the United States asks for help.
The vice president argues that the Filipino people, including soldiers in the military, have a right to know what the Philippines has agreed to in terms of military cooperation with the US. He and others are miffed that the Arroyo administration refused to have a public debate on it by insisting it wasn’t a treaty with the Americans, and thus didn’t need to be submitted to the Senate for ratification.
I do find it suspicious that the administration has worked hard to downplay the implications of the MLSA, especially post-Sept. 11 when the Bush administration is so intent on waging war on Iraq. President Arroyo’s over-enthusiastic support of Bush’s war on terror has undoubtedly put the Philippines in even greater danger from terrorist attacks. An MILF fighter this past week claimed that Iraq had dispatched three suicide bombers to the Philippines to punish the country for supporting the US so vigorously. Whether this is true or not is beside the point. Already, Canada and Australia have advised their citizens to avoid travel to the Philippines because of possible terrorist attacks.
The Philippine government should remember that has around 2 million OFWs in the Middle East, and that their lives are potentially in danger if an assault on Iraq degenerates into a region-wide war. The horrific Bali bombings should give pause to thought about the wider implications of being such a visible supporter of the US militarily. Yes, do provide logistical support to US troops if asked to do so, but the Philippines would do better to just quietly help the United States than jump up and noisily offer assistance before the Americans have even asked for it.
Arab News Opinion 29 November 2002
