The personal secretary of businessman Roberto Ongpin on Tuesday objected to a statement from Senator Sergio Osmeña III claiming that she had pointed to Ongpin as the owner of a firm that was involved in the controversial buyout of Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) bonds.
In a telephone interview, Josephine Manalo said she did not identify Ongpin as the owner of Global Air Services (GAS), a British Virgin Islands-based shell corporation, during the closed-door meeting she had with senators the other day.
“I never said anything like that,” Manalo said. “I don’t know where they got that.”
Ongpin’s lawyer, Alex Poblador, who was also present at the executive session, also denied that Manalo had said that “her boss owns 50 percent of GAS.”
“In fact, she denied that Ongpin had any relationship with GAS,” the lawyer said.
Poblador also stressed that the 68-year-old Manalo, who was taken to hospital last week because of ill health, has no plans of leaving the country.
“I strongly believe that she is not guilty of any wrongdoing so there is no need for her to leave,” he said.
“During the executive session, Manalo’s blood pressure remained way above normal level,” Poblador said.
Ongpin’s lawyer stressed that during the executive session, “never was the word dummy used [by Manalo].”
“I strongly object to the use of the word dummy as Ms Manalo actually acted as a nominee of Mr. Ongpin,” he said.
“Dummy implies a wrongful act whereas a nominee where the beneficial owner is fully disclosed is perfectly regular and legal,” Poblador said.
The Senate is investigating Ongpin’s acquisition of P660 million in loans from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) which he used to buy the state-owned bank’s Philex Mining Corp. (Philex) shares. The senators allege that Ongpin had used his ties to Jose Miguel Arroyo, the husband of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to obtain the allegedly “behest” loans.
Osmeña has complained of the difficulty of establishing Ongpin’s ownership of certain corporations or trace the businessman’s links to these.