Comelec chair to be summoned at next Senate hearing on money laundering

Beleaguered Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Andres Bautista will be summoned in the next Senate hearing on money laundering to give him “a chance to defend himself” regarding his questionable accounts in a local bank containing millions of pesos.

Senator Francis Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on banks, approved Senator Grace Poe’s motion to invite Bautista in the second hearing.

“Pagkakataon niyang (Bautista) i-depensa ang kanyang sarili at sabi niya ang mga perang ito ay galing sa lehitimong hanapbuhay (This is his chance to defend himself. He said this money came from legitimate sources),” Poe said during the inquiry.

Only representatives of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Luzon Development Bank (LDB), and Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) were invited at Wednesday’s hearing on the possible anti-money laundering act violations of the LDB by keeping several of Bautista’s accounts.

Escudero said Bautista would be summoned to “shed light on this issue or in the absence thereof to submit a waiver to the bank so that the hearings can proceed without legal stumbling blocks.”