Payoff to IBP chief Libarios denied

Attorney Ferdinand Topacio INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A lawyer of former first gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo on Thursday labeled as a “brazen lie” from the administration’s “frame-up factory” allegations that his client gave P500,000 in 2001 to current Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) president Roan Libarios.

“The brazen lie now being peddled by minions of the present administration to the effect that the present head of the IBP, attorney Libarios, purportedly received P500,000 from the former first gentleman in 2001 through a Ma. Victoria Toh, shows that the propagandists of the present dispensation will stop at nothing to vilify and devastate the character of anyone who does not subscribe to its twisted doctrines and who would dare oppose its policies,” said Arroyo’s lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio.

Refusal of support

Topacio linked the supposed plan of a former employee of LTA Inc., Arroyo’s firm, to testify about Libarios’ having allegedly received P500,000 from Arroyo to the IBP’s refusal to support the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Corona was a longtime aide of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Arroyo’s spouse who named the former to the high court and later appointed him Chief Justice just before the end of her term.

Corona has been impeached by the House of Representatives, supposedly on the instigation of Mr. Aquino, and is facing a trial in the Senate.

‘He’s being demolished’

“Attorney Libarios is undoubtedly being demolished for being against the impeachment of the Chief Justice. As a noted lawyer and head of the national bar association, he is quite able to defend himself, so we need not act as his champion. But we still need to set the record aright, and the confirmable facts are that attorneys Libarios and Arroyo do not know each other and neither does attorney Libarios know Ms. Toh.

“Attorney Arroyo also vigorously denies ever having given money to attorney Libarios, either personally or through an intermediary. Records will also show that attorney Arroyo had effectively divested himself of any interest in LTA Inc. at the time the alleged payment took place, therefore, the reports on this matter are totally wrong,” Topacio said.

Topacio said Libarios appeared to be “collateral damage” in the Aquino administration’s “war” against the Constitution and the rule of law.

‘To achieve absolute power’

“In trying to dominate all the branches of government, Mr. Aquino and his sycophants have set aside all that is decent and honest, and have gone so low as to fabricate out-and-out lies to discredit those who stand in Mr. Aquino’s way of achieving absolute power. Attorney Libarios’ misfortune is that he is becoming successful, as leader of the country’s lawyers, in putting a major stumbling block to the dictatorial and dynastic aspirations of the Aquino family. Truly, the Palace Goebbels never let the truth get in the way of a highly sensationalized if totally untruthful story,” he said.

Topacio said the Department of Justice should investigate the matter “so the public may know just how plainly dimwitted this latest accusation is.”

He said supporters of President Benigno Aquino III should stop making baseless attacks against the Arroyo family in the hour of their bereavement after the death of Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio Arroyo.