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Envelope on Estrada's Alleged Huge Bank Deposits Opened
The Philippine Senate on Wednesday opened the envelope containing documents of Jose Velarde 's account involving 3.2 billion pesos (some US$67 million), but it remains unclear whether the account belongs to ousted president Joesph Estrada or his crony Jaime Dichaves.
Among the documents contained in the second sealed envelope is a letter by Dichaves dated August 25, 1999 addressed to Equitable BankingCorp. President Romuald Dy Tang, asking the bank to open a current and savings account with one of its branch for Jose Velarde,"care of the undersigned."
According to the bank records, total deposits reached 2.168 billion pesos (45.4 million dollars), but the amount went up to 3. 2 billion peso when its interests were added.
Just three days before the impeachment charges were filed against Estrada in the House of Representatives on November 13 last year, the funds in the savings account were completely depleted. As of November 10, 2000, the balance of the savings account went down to zero.
The opening of the sealed envelope was witnessed by Ombudsman Aniano Desierto and Sen. Rene Cayetano. Equitable PCIBank vice president Ceferino Ang was also invited to attest that the documents were not tampered from the time they were delivered to the senate until they were opened.
Certified true copies of the documents were later turned over to the Ombudsman to be used as evidence in prosecuting Estrada on the charges of corruption filed against him.
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