President Duterte will personally escort embattled Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres D. Bautista to the exit door if it is proven he had amassed ill-gotten wealth, Malacañang said on Monday.
Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella said, if Bautista has a case to answer in court, the President will certainly support his removal from office. “The President’s stand is pretty clear regarding this matter that he will not tolerate corruption, even a whiff of it,” Abella said in a news briefing.
Andres is facing allegations from his wife, Patricia Paz C. Bautista, of amassing ill-gotten wealth amounting to as much as P1 billion. Patricia has transmitted an affidavit to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) disclosing information on the alleged misdealing and corrupt activities of Bautista while in government service.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II, meanwhile, said he has directed the NBI probe the allegations against Bautista. Specifically, Aguirre instructed NBI Director Dante Gierran to conduct a case buildup into Bautista’s alleged failure to disclose information required in his the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).
The DOJ chief added that the NBI should also look into other allegations made by Bautista’s wife Patricia in her sworn affidavit submitted to the NBI.
Among the documents that she disclosed to prove his husband’s ill-gotten wealth were 35 Luzon Development Bank passbooks with a total balance of P329.2 million; a foreign-currency account with Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) with $12,778; an RCBC personal account with P257,931.60; an HSBC account with HK$948,358.97; a condominium unit in One Bonifacio High Street at Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City; a condominium unit in The District in San Francisco California.
She, likewise, claimed that she was kept in the dark by Bautista with regard to 13 other real properties listed in his SALN.
Patricia has claimed she met with Duterte on July 26 to inform him of the purported anomalies of her husband in his stint as poll chief.
However, Abella did not confirm Patricia’s claim of meeting with the President, but divulged Duterte has a scheduled close-in meeting with an unidentified party on the said date.
The President’s spokesman added, “The whole matter has to be fully investigated” before Malacañang issues a position on the corruption allegation. If one thing is certain, Abella said the President will support the removal of Andres should prosecution prove a case against him.
Patricia on August 1 submitted to the NBI an affidavit containing documents pinning Andres of amassing wealth—passbooks, bank accounts and real properties—undeclared in his statement of SALN. Patricia said her husband might have accumulated as much as P1 billion worth of ill-gotten wealth, in spite of declaring a net worth of P176.3 million in his SALN.
Under Article 11, Section 2 of the Constitution, members of the Constitutional commissions, which include the Comelec, “may be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, culpable of violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes or betrayal of public trust”.
In a news statement, Bautista said his estranged wife is only propagating false allegations against him and “allowing herself to be serve the political agenda of some opportunistic people”.
“Her allegations are all lies, and I categorically deny all of them. It was my hope that we could still fix our marital problems or, at least, address them in a civil and decent manner,” the statement read.
Bautista added his wife allegedly stole financial assets, including cash and gift certificates, belonging to himself and his family. “Throughout this time, she has repeatedly attempted to extort and blackmail me using her lawyers and media contacts, and, when she realized that no windfall was forthcoming, she decided to file her affidavit based on fabrications and lies,” the poll chief said.
Bautista was appointed to the Comelec by former President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2015, after heading the Presidential Commission on Good Government for five years.