Marcoleta tags Comelec chief Garcia in Caymans offshore bank controversy

Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta (R) names Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson George Garcia (L) as the listed owner of an offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands, presenting copies of bank transfer receipts to boost his claims during a press conference on Thursday, August 1, 2024. | PHOTOS: Official Facebook pages of COMELEC and Rodante Marcoleta

MANILA, Philippines (Updated) — Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta named Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairperson George Garcia as the listed owner of an offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands, presenting copies of bank transfer receipts to boost his claims.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Marcoleta said they tapped volunteers in New York, USA to make bank transfers worth $100 to two offshore bank accounts supposedly owned by Garcia.

He also alleged that receipts from Chase for Business indicated that the offshore bank accounts were under the name “George Erwin Mojica Garcia.”

READ: Who is Rep. Marcoleta?

“Chairman George Garcia said when he was interviewed by the media that […] he does not have even a single offshore bank account. He even said that God is his witness. But you can see that our volunteer in New York deposited $100 to an account number ending 0550 […] you can see here that the account ending in 0550 is named under George Erwin Mojica Garcia, and his address is stated there,” Marcoleta said.

According to the lawmaker, a volunteer who he did not identify also made another US$100 deposit to another account, this time ending in 8562.

“Our volunteer in New York deposited $100 to an account ending 8562.  Later, I will show the entire bank account, but it shows the name of George Erwin Mojica Garcia,” the congressman said.

“If you can see, that receipt came from Chase of Business. That is a platform of the US-based institution, a reputable bank called JPMorgan Chase & Company. That’s a consumer and banking subsidiary of a reputable world-renowned banking institution based in America. That’s why the transaction records generated by Chase for Business can be considered authentic and untampered,” he added.

Documents shared by Marcoleta to the media showed that the two accounts were under Scotiabank and Trust Cayman LTD, and The Bank of New York Mellon.

“If the Chairman is clean, why don’t we support him? But in this case, I was able to prove that there are accounts, this is clear, the document would not lie. This account ending in 050, actually the complete account number is 107-63000-10750, this is a Scotiabank Primary Savings Account,” he said.

“The other one, the account ending in 8562, the complete account number — this is in Cayman National Bank — this is a savings account with account number 0000-012-58562,” he added.

Marcoleta reported this development almost a month after he first revealed that at least P1 billion worth of funds were transferred from different banks, including those based in South Korea, to 49 offshore bank accounts allegedly linked to a Comelec official.

Marcoleta refused to divulge the identity of the Comelec official, even his or her rank, during the July 9 press briefing, but later in the day, Garcia said it was him being referred to by the lawmaker.

READ: Marcoleta: P1-B moved from foreign banks to poll exec’s offshore accounts

According to Marcoleta, there were certain developments in the poll body’s automated election system procurement when fund transfers occurred, like a money transfer on June 22, 2023, where a deposit worth $148,000 was made by a certain Stephen Schultz/Kyong Baek from Standard Chartered Bank and Jong Ro Main Branch in South Korea, to Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.

This supposedly happened alongside Comelec’s declaration that vote-counting machines used in the past election were unserviceable.

READ: Comelec chief urged to clarify, address alleged bribery

INQUIRER.net contacted Garcia back then regarding the issue, and the poll body chief sent copies of a letter he wrote to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).  In the letter to the NBI, Garcia requested an investigation of allegations that he has offshore bank accounts, which were spreading online.

On Thursday, Garcia said the offshore accounts presented by Marcoleta are fake and were just made recently by using his name, noting that bank transfers usually proceed even if erroneous names are used, as long as account numbers are correct.

READ: Garcia: Bank accounts presented by Marcoleta ‘fake’, uses my name