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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Alice in Wonderland By Antonio C. Abaya August 22, 2001 The bullying senators missed it. The usually eagle-eyed men and women of media � or at least those in the two dailies that I get � missed it. The crusaders of civil society missed it. The communist front organizations missed it. Does one really have to be a rocket scientist to see it? Senator Panfilo Lacson, who is no rocket scientist but is as chillingly observant and efficient as one, seems to have seen it, which may be why he has pointedly refrained from reacting to it. For reasons of his own. Recall that in his expose that appeared in the August 5 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Col. Victor Corpus revealed details of 18 bank accounts in foreign banks where more than $700 million were allegedly stashed by Lacson singly, or jointly with his wife Alice, or jointly with Joseph Estrada, or singly by Estrada. Two of these 18 accounts were/are supposedly in the name of Alice, the senator�s wife: one was with Bank of America in Las Vegas, Nevada, containing $21.9 million; the other with Wells Fargo Bank in Washington (DC or state, Corpus did not say) containing $18.4 million. Or a total of $40.3 million. In its August 16 issue, the Daily Inquirer reprinted portions of two letters, said to be dated April 18 and April 30, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to its counterpart Philippine agency, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). One of the two letters of the FBI reads as follows (full names of the banks blackened out by the Inquirer): �1. (Blackened out) Bank � currently has two accounts in the name of Alice Lacson. One account is a checking account with a small balance and one is a savings account with a large balance. This account is in the name of Alice Lacson and a business, Orient Light LLC. The address for these accounts is in California. (Blackened out) does not have any safe deposit boxes for Panfilo or Alice Lacson. �2. Bank (blackened out) � currently has two accounts in the name of Alice Lacson. One account is a checking account with a small balance and current transactions and one is a savings account with a large balance with current transactions. The address for this account is Panorama City, California. BofA (the Inquirer neglected to blacken this out-ACA) does not have any current accounts for Panfilo Lacson. However, Panfilo Lacson did have an account which was closed in 1996. There is also a Visa card issued��(the reprinted portion ends here-ACA). Is it really far-fetched to conclude that the two US banks (Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America) in which Col. Corpus says Alice Lacson has/had a total of $40.3 million are the same two banks named by the FBI in their letter to the NBI, where Alice Lacson is said to have savings accounts with �large balances,� even if those two banks� full names were blackened out by the Inquirer (which, however, neglected to blacken out the FBI�s reference to �BofA� which is shorthand for �Bank of America,� making it a dead give-away)? In its accompanying article of August 16, the Inquirer reporters wrote: �The official correspondence (of the FBI) dated April 18 and 30 does not appear to confirm any of the eight accounts listed by Col. Victor Corpus�as belonging to Lacson and containing laundered drug money�� True. But, my dear Watson, doesn�t it confirm the two bank accounts listed by Corpus as being in the name of Alice Lacson, the senator�s wife. The FBI did not cite any figures, only that Alice�s two savings accounts contained �large balances.� Are $40.3 million large enough? The doubting Mang Tomases in media and the Senate, side-tracked, deliberately or otherwise, by peripheral non-issues, cannot see the forest for the trees. They ask for �hard evidence�, but they would not recognize it even if it came knocking on their doors in broad daylight. Whether he is really a money launderer and a drug trafficker, as alleged by Corpus, or an innocent victim of a demolition job, as he protests, Sen. Lacson still has to give a credible explanation as to why the FBI says his wife has two savings accounts in the US with �large balances� (which confirms, at least partially, Corpus� expose). If the Senate is unwilling or unable to extract that from Lacson, in open, televised hearings, then the people should consider abolishing the Senate and sending the senators home. Dapat Tapat!!! |