Marcoleta seeks probe into Comelec chair’s alleged offshore funds

Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta holds a press briefing on issues hounding Comelec and its automated election system provider. GABRIEL PABICO LALU/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta has filed a resolution asking appropriate House of Representatives panels to investigate the presence of offshore accounts allegedly belonging to a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official.

After revealing on Thursday that the offshore bank accounts were supposedly traced to Comelec Chairperson George Garcia, Marcoleta announced he filed House Resolution No. 1827 on Wednesday.

In the resolution, Marcoleta said that Congress must probe the “alleged bribery and corruption involving Comelec Chairman Garcia and Miru Systems and its local partners.”

“It is necessary to conduct an inquiry on the above alarming allegations, as well as against Miru Systems and its local partners, which, if found accurate, may constitute criminal offenses under the Constitution, as well as other applicable laws and regulations governing government officials,” Marcoleta said.

“Based on the foregoing, there is reason to investigate and inquire about the potential existence of connivance and conspiracy between Comelec Chairman Garcia and the Miru Joint Venture, to ensure the integrity of the upcoming 2025 Philippine elections and to preserve the exercise of each Filipino voter’s inherent right to suffrage,” he added.

JUST IN: Marcoleta shows receipt of their volunteer’s transfers to an offshore account, revealing the beneficiary to a certain George Erwin Mojica Garcia. | @GabrielLaluINQ pic.twitter.com/hka3eyGvfS

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) August 1, 2024

Earlier, Marcoleta claimed that they tapped volunteers in New York to deposit money into an account — receipts of which supposedly yielded Garcia’s name.

“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,” Marcoleta said.

“That receipt came from a platform of a US-based institution, a reputable bank called JP Morgan 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 from Chase for Business can be considered authentic and untampered,” he added.

The development comes almost a month after Marcoleta initially revealed that at least P1 billion worth of funds were transferred from different banks — including those based in South Korea — into 49 offshore accounts supposedly linked to a Comelec official.

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

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

According to Marcoleta, there were certain developments in the poll body’s automated election system (AES) 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 of the past vote counting machines (VCMs) as unserviceable.

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

READ: Comelec chief urged to clarify, address alleged bribery