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SANDIGANBAYAN sheriffs backed by policemen on Tuesday
failed to locate former justice secretary Hernando
Perez, his wife Rosario and brother in law Ramon Arceo,
who were ordered arrested by the antigraft court on
graft, extortion and other charges.
The
Perezes were not in their house on Bonifacio Street,
Ayala Heights, Old Balara, Quezon City, when the
arresting team arrived.
Arceo
was, likewise, not in his house on Dao Street in the
posh Valle Verde subdivision in
Pasig City.
Reports
reaching
Manila, however, said Perez and his wife posted bail before the
Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Batangas.
The
Sandiganbayan’s Sheriff and Security Services Office
said it received information that Perez and his wife
Rosario posted bail of P30,000 each before Executive
Judge Ruben Galvez of the RTC in Batangas.
The
Perez couple and Arceo were ordered arrested by the
antigraft court Monday after the Ombudsman filed charges
against them in connection with the $2-million extortion
case filed by former independent representative Mark
Jimenez of Manila.
The
antigraft court set a P30,000 bail each for the accused
and issued a hold departure order against them.
Another
coaccused in the case, Ernest Escaler, was not included
in the arrest warrant as he had posted bail at the
Sandiganbayan First Division last week.
Sandiganbayan sheriff Reynaldo Melquiades, who led the
arresting team, went to Perez’s residence but found only
the family’s househelp.
Melquiades’s team was escorted by the team of Insp.
Roberto Razon, head of the Quezon City police Criminal
Investigation and Detection Unit.
Melquiades said his team left a copy of the arrest
warrant of Perez and his wife to their house help.
On April
18 the Ombudsman filed four criminal charges against
Perez and his coaccused for robbery-extortion.
In
addition, Perez was slapped graft and falsification of
public documents charges because he was a public
official at the time of the alleged commission of the
crime.
Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez said Perez and his
coaccused “took advantage of his position as the
then-justice secretary by demanding Jimenez to deliver
the amount of $2 million in connection with the
execution of affidavits to be used in the case against
the former President Estrada.”
The
robbery-extortion cases stemmed from the complaint filed
by Jimenez that Perez and the other defendants extorted
$2 million from him after he refused to execute
affidavits implicating associates of former President
Joseph Estrada in the latter’s plunder case.
The
falsification of public documents charge against Perez,
on the other hand, stemmed from his alleged failure to
declare $1.7 million that was deposited in his and his
wife’s bank accounts in his 2001 Statement of Assets,
Liabilities and Networth.
Meanwhile, Sen. Panfilo Lacson challenged Perez to name
those who allegedly benefited from the commissions given
in the power deal with the Argentine company Industria
Metalurgica Pescarmona Sociedad Anopmina, signed less
than a week after President Arroyo took power in January
2001.
Lacson
said he has information indicating that the deal brought
“bribes” of as much as $14 million, and not just $2
million as earlier reported. |
