COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia has challenged his critics to shed their parliamentary immunity by putting their allegations under oath.
“All of my denials about their allegations that I owned 49 offshore bank accounts and six local bank accounts and my waiver on secrecy of bank deposits, which I submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), are all under oath,” said Garcia. “I can be charged of perjury for lying under oath.”
“My only request is for my critics to put their allegations also under oath to be fair,” he said. “I can be charged if I name names, same with ordinary people but they (detractors) have immunity if they speak. It’s not a fair fight.”
Commission on Elections Chairman George Erwin Garcia. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta and former Caloocan City representative Edgar Erice claimed that a Comelec official they did not name has 49 offshore accounts in 18 banks where supposed bribe money amounting to almost P1 billion was deposited.
They also alleged that the same official owned accounts in six local banks.
Last week, Marcoleta named Garcia as the owner of two accounts in a New York bank where he claimed they were able to have deposited $100 each in two separate offshore accounts in the name of the Comelec chief.
Garcia said the two accounts referred to by Marcoleta were newly opened accounts and were not on the list of the original 49 offshore accounts that he reportedly owns.
Garcia said he had proven that the two offshore accounts presented by Marcoleta were fake.
“The account number may be original, but the account name was fake. The account is owned by a different person, but placed my name when the online deposit was done by a consulting firm. It is tantamount to identity theft or a bank fraud, a serious offense in the United States,” he said.
Garcia said he is “ready to face any kind of hearing because I have no foreign account nor any piece of property abroad. At the same time, I don’t own the six local bank accounts as per certification from the concerned banks that said accounts are fake.”
He said his detractors were on a “fishing expedition” in a futile attempt to mislead the public into believing he has accounts in offshore and local banks and owned properties abroad.
Marcoleta named Garcia’s depository banks as the HSBC, OCBC, Citibank NA, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of America, DBS Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Shanghai, UBS (Bahamas) Ltd., RBC (Royal Bank), Cayman Island National Bank, CBC First Caribbean Bank, Butterfield Bank, Scotiabank Cayman Island and Chase Bank.
Garcia said opening an account in the US, Cayman Island, among other countries mentioned by Marcoleta, requires the physical presence of the depositor.
“I have not set foot in any of those countries. I don’t have a US visa, a Cayman Island visa or any other countries mentioned,” he said.
In the US, he added, someone who is not a permanent US resident or citizen cannot open a bank account because a social security number is required, which can only be acquired by an American citizen.
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