EMBATTLED Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista said he is ready to face any investigation into allegations made by his estranged wife Patricia that he had amassed P1 billion in ill-gotten wealth, saying these were lies.
Bautista said he welcomed Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre’s order, asking the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a probe after his wife claimed he had bank accounts and pieces of real property that were not reflected in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, which government workers are required to faithfully accomplish and submit every year.
“We can go asset by asset,” the Comelec chief in a press conference said, adding that if his wife can find the money she claimed to be deposited abroad, “she can have it.”
“I worked in an international law firm, and [was a] partner of Allen and Overy law firm, worked as legal of Shangrila Philippines and also worked in another law firm in Hong Kong,” he said. “I think it is only right that I have dollar account and account in Hong Kong.”
Bautista said his wife made up the allegations against him when he could not meet her demand for P620 million following their separation in 2013.
“She has been asking for a lot of money and I told her again, these monies do not belong to me, because that belongs to my family members. And I do have substantial money which is shown in my SALN and I was willing to give her fair share of that but she just wants a lot more,” he said.
Bautista also suggested that his wife had a lover, but did not offer any details.
“I want to save my family, my children but a third party was involved,” he said.
He also accused his wife of stealing his documents without his knowledge.
In a press conference, Patricia said she had in her possession bank books that showed Bautista had more than P329 million, a US dollar account worth P640,959, a Hong Kong dollar account worth P6.1 million, and condominium units in Taguig and San Francisco, USA.
“I’ve been told that there is a political agenda behind this move. I think that there are other factors that are moving aside from the usual marital problems that married people have to contend with,” Bautista said.
However, Bautista declined to comment on speculation that the Marcos family was somehow involved because former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who ran for vice president but lost, had a pending election complaint before the Supreme Court.
In an interview on GMA-7, Bautista said he and his wife have had marital problems for a long time, saying she took a lover in 2013.
He added that her allegations were motivated by money.
“I tried to save the marriage because we have young children, so we went through counseling, but she seemed determined to leave,” Bautista said.
He added that her demands for money kept rising, and accused her of extortion.
Bautista said his wife obtained his private documents in November 2016 after she withdrew $117,000 from their joint bank account and employed armed men to have him barred from entering their home.
He said when he was in America, she made a withdrawal of $117,000 and P250,000 in their joint account and moved the funds to her account.
“I was barred from entering my own home,” Bautista said. “In fact, she put goons—armed goons—at our condo unit so that I would not be able to enter.”
When he was finally allowed in, Bautista said, he found his cabinets had been rifled through and that sensitive documents were taken.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said he would not meddle in the case, even though he had met Bautista and his wife separately.
“I was not meddling,” Duterte told Palace reporters.
He said he told Bautista to fix whatever trouble he had with his wife.
The President added that he would not investigate the allegations of ill-gotten wealth because a case would be filed.
“I don’t want to preempt Congress or the Ombudsman,” he said.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, who ordered the NBI to investigate the case, said that while Bautista can be removed only by impeachment, he is not immune from criminal investigation.
“The NBI may conduct any investigation of any government official, regardless of whether they are impeachable or not,” Aguirre said in a text message.
“Being charged is different from being investigated. You could use the investigation to support the impeachment charges,” he added.
As an impeachable official, Bautista can be charged for criminal cases only after removal from office through impeachment.
Patricia claimed in her sworn statement that her husband, who was appointed as Comelec chairman in May 2015 by President Aquino, had money in banks, condominiums, and interest and shares in companies established overseas worth P1 billion that the poll chief did not declare in his 2016 SALN.
Bautista declared a total net worth of P176.3 million in 2016.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III filed a resolution asking the Blue Ribbon committee to investigate Mrs. Bautista’s allegations that the Comelec chairman has amassed P1 billion in ill-gotten wealth.
“We need to know if indeed there is hidden wealth and if so, when and how it was amassed,” he said.
Senator Grace Poe, on the other hand, called for a lifestyle check for Comelec officials, after the “shocking revelations” by Bautista’s wife.
“This goes beyond a domestic dispute. It is an allegation of corruption of epic proportions that definitely concerns public interest given the sensitive position in our democratic set up that Chairman Bautista occupies,” Poe said.
“It can no longer be framed merely as a wife vs. husband quarrel. The information made public points to the possibility of a ‘husband vs. the people’ case,” she said.
Senator Francis Escudero said the allegations against Bautista may “involve serious violations of the Constitution.
“Her allegations, if true, involve serious violations of the Constitution and the law which should be thoroughly vetted and investigated by the appropriate government agencies such as the NBI, Ombudsman, AMLC, OSG and BSP,” he said, referring to the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the Office of the Solicitor General, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Five days before she submitted her affidavit, Bautista’s wife met with Duterte in Malacañang. She told the President about the bank passbooks and other documents she has discovered detailing bank accounts and real estate properties in the name of her husband and some relatives.
Among these assets is a condominium unit in San Francisco, California which, she said, which she didn’t know about.
She added that these were not included in the Comelec chairman’s 2016 SALN.
In the House, Kabayan party-list Rep. Harry Roque filed a resolution seeking a congressional probe, saying that the “shocking revelations” hurled against Bautista’s enstranged wife, raised serious questions about the integrity of the May 2016 national elections.