From where stems the audacity of the Arroyo brothers to trot out yet another ownership claim by the younger in an effort to get the older off the hook, but the “Jose Pidal” issue that once took on the dimensions of a full-blown scandal but ultimately ended in a whimper?
Incredibly, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo claimed early this week that the helicopters purportedly owned by Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo and passed off as brand-new to the Philippine National Police were merely leased to the family corporation of which he, Iggy, was then president. Iggy’s belated announcement made through his lawyer is breathtaking for its similarity to his earlier claim that it was he who owned the suspicious Jose Pidal bank accounts attributed to Mike, suggesting a pattern linking the brothers, or, if not that, an intertwined bond not unlike that of the Bobbsey twins.
Iggy is saying that contrary to documents and witnesses’ accounts that then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband sold his two used helicopters to the PNP for brand-new rates in 2009, the choppers were not owned by Mike and were merely leased to LTA Inc. for two months in 2004. He adds that he was the man in charge at the time the lease agreement was signed, Mike having purportedly divested himself of shares in the family corporation in March 2001.
It’s a startling claim that requires further inquiry, but Iggy is not in a position to oblige senators eager to question him. He’s supposedly in London for treatment of a liver ailment—a physical distance that calls to mind the psychical distance he created by invoking his right to privacy as purported owner of the Jose Pidal accounts. As any observer with a long memory will recall, that stance was subsequently upheld by Sen. Joker Arroyo, the then head of the joint investigating Senate committees, who said that in the absence of proof from Mike’s accuser, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Iggy’s right to keep a tight lip should be respected.
Iggy came to Mike’s rescue in September 2003. He claimed to own the Jose Pidal accounts that, according to Lacson who delivered privilege speeches on the matter, held at least P260 million in laundered money, which supposedly comprised campaign contributions to Mike’s wife.
At that time, then Sen. John Osmeña commented that the Bacolod-based “Ignacito” was truly a “kind brother” for claiming ownership not only of two buildings in San Francisco said to be owned by Mike and wife, but also of the Jose Pidal accounts. Even ousted President Joseph Estrada managed to get a jab in, saying that he knew Iggy to be “penniless.” (Granting that it’s true, it doesn’t hold water anymore. As of December 2010, the congressman was worth P137.922 million, per his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.)
Now Iggy has been formally summoned to the Senate inquiry into the questionable choppers led by the blue ribbon committee. His brother had also been thus called, but poor health is a factor that seems to come handy to, and allows a shield for, family members. It remains to be seen whether the investigation has sufficient steam to move forward and uncover grounds on which to take culpable parties to court.
The fact is that the open-ended Senate inquiry into the Jose Pidal accounts casts a long shadow on congressional investigations. After the hue and cry in the blue-ribbon-committee-led hearings that began in September 2003, Senator Arroyo issued a draft ruling saying in effect that Lacson had the duty to prove his allegations and that the Arroyo brothers were not obliged to prove that nothing illegal had transpired. The committees on banks and on constitutional amendments bucked this draft ruling and resolved that the inquiry be continued.
But in February 2004, hardly anyone who mattered, including Lacson, showed up at the resumption of the investigation. Mike said he was sick, Iggy was purportedly abroad. Only the chairs of the committees on banks and on constitutional amendments, Senators Sergio Osmeña and Edgardo Angara, respectively, along with Sen. Juan Flavier, were present.
No committee report appears to have been issued. And Iggy and Mike are still top-cast in an astonishing story of brotherhood.