A brother-in-law of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday described Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s plan to revive the “Jose Pidal” bank account controversy as “a shameless and monumental waste of time and resources.”
“I hope [Lacson] will be man enough and civil enough to admit his mistake this time,” said Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, a younger brother of Arroyo’s husband.
According to Iggy Arroyo, Lacson considers the truth as not what is but how he wants it to be.
Lacson had earlier said there was still no closure in the Senate blue ribbon committee’s inquiry into the real identity of Jose Pidal. He said Arroyo’s husband had opened bank accounts under that alias for the purpose of laundering money.
Public admission
Iggy Arroyo said, however, that he publicly admitted during the inquiry under the previous administration that he was the Jose Pidal in the questioned bank accounts, and even provided specimen signatures then.
“The opposition then presented a supposed handwriting expert to dispute my claim, but it turned out that the person did not even have enough credentials to be called an expert,” he said, adding:
“A Senate probe was conducted but no wrongdoing on our part was proven. No other supposed expert was presented by the opposition. So why should Senator Lacson waste time on another replay? For media mileage.”
‘Nothing illegal’
Iggy Arroyo said all the banks that were linked to the Jose Pidal controversy had issued individual certifications that they had no account under that name when Lacson talked about it in the Senate.
“In other words, there was nothing wrong, there was nothing illegal, so there’s no need to repeat everything all over again,” he said. “The only one who will benefit from a replay is Senator Lacson himself through the publicity it will generate.”
The congressman also said that instead of replaying the Jose Pidal controversy, it would be wiser for Lacson to spend the time on his main job.
“I wonder how many bills has Senator Lacson authored so far since he became a senator,” Arroyo said.
Lacson had said he would soon reveal evidence proving that the younger Arroyo was not Jose Pidal.
“I’m not—for those who would dare say—in a time warp; there’s no closure and resolution to the investigation [yet],” he said.