Comelec chair bares suspicions on origin of alleged ‘fake’ deposits 

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 6:27 p.m.) — Commission on Elections Chairperson George Garcia on Thursday presented documents alleging an overseas firm with ties to a certain “Smartmatic Services Corp.” fabricated the deposits that were used to accuse him of owning offshore bank accounts.

Garcia disclosed his office’s findings that “Jaleo Consulting LLC,” an alleged public relations firm owned by a certain Jose Herrera, was the entity that made the deposits into his purported offshore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands. 

The Comelec chief said his investigation found that Herrera is the director of Albatross Technologies Corporation, a firm that shares an address with a company named “Smartmatic Services Corp.” in the United States, according to an online business directory website.

“Ang address ng (The address of) Albatross Technologies Corporation ay #26 Pine Road Belleville, St. Michael, Barbados. Hindi ko nga alam saan iyong Barbados (I don’t know where Barbados is),” Garcia said.

“Siyempre galing ng staff ko, ni-research yung address. Wala akong binibintang. Pero bakit naman ang address sa Barbados ng company na sinasabi ko ay parehas sa address ng company ng dati nating provider?” the Comelec chief said.

(Of course, my staff researched the address. I’m not making any accusations. But why does the address in Barbados of the company I’m mentioning match the address of our former provider’s company?)

“Coincidence lang ba ‘yan? Sana maipaliwanag saatin (Is that a coincidence? I hope it can be explained to us),” Garcia said.

An online search of the address stated by Garcia turns up a page of “Smartmatic Services Corp.” from the website of “Dun & Bradstreet.” The website states that it “collects private company financials for more than 23 million companies worldwide.”

Documents from the Barbados Corporate Registry, as displayed in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ database dubbed the “Paradise Papers,” show that the address Garcia mentioned is the “registered office” of “Smarmatic Solutions Corporation.”

Philstar.com has reached out to Smartmatic Philippines for comment and will update this story with their response.

The Comelec chief said that the identical address points to only one conclusion. “Pero ayaw ko na ako ang gumawa ng konklusyon (But I don’t want the conclusion to come from myself),” he said.

Further research shows Herrera is the legal counsel of Smartmatic and the father-in-law of one of its owners, Garcia said.

Smartmatic Philippines was disqualified by the Comelec in November 2023 from participating in the bidding for future elections.

Garcia disputes Marcoleta’s accusation through ‘Batman’ transaction

Earlier, the Comelec chief refuted Rep. Rodante Marcoleta’s accusation that he had offshore bank accounts by making an online transaction with the same accounts using a made-up name. 

Garcia’s team used the fake name “Batman” to send money to the same bank account in Marcoleta’s receipts. Screengrabs of the transactions sent by Garcia to reporters show these were successful. 

“So ang ginawa po nila, tunay na account sa New York bank na kakabukas lang sa pangalan ng iba tao, tapos nagpadala via wire transfer yang Jaleo Consulting/PR firm sa US na hired nila at at may ari ay latino ng $100 sa same account number tapos pinalitan ang tunay na name ng pangalan ko,” Garcia said.

(So what they did was open a real account at a New York bank, recently opened in someone else’s name, and then had Jaleo Consulting, a PR firm in the US that they hired and is owned by a Latino, wire $100 to the same account number but changed the actual name to mine.)