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SENATE OPENS MYSTERIOUS SECOND ENVELOPE The Senate, formally opened Wednesday the controversial sealed envelope that

the Senate as an impeachment court had voted, by 11-10, not to open, thus trigerrin g People Power II which led to the fall of the Estrada administration. The envelope was retrieved from the Senate vault at 10 a.m. yesterday. The vault was opened by Jonathan David Yap, legal counsel of the Senate as an impeachment court. The reading of the contents of the envelope by Senate President Aquilino Pimente l Jr. and Sen, Renato Cayetano was witnessed by Sen. Anna Dominique "Nikki" Cose teng, Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, Lutgardo Barbo who was secretary and clerk of court o f the Senate sitting as an impeachment court, lawyer Romeo Capulong, one of the complainants in the impeachment case and one of the private prosecutors hired by the 11-member prosecution panel from the House of Representatives, and Lauro Vi zconde, a member of Citizens against Violence (CAV). As expected, the bank documents in the envelope showed a little over P1 billion in deposits of ousted President Joseph Estrada with Equitable PCI Bank under the name Jose Velarde and a letter from his crony Jaime Dichaves, who earlier claim ed that he was Velarde. The letter from Jaime Dichaves was addressed to Romualdo Dy Tan, opening a bank account and stating that "all other banking transactions of Jose Velarde shall b e coursed through the undersigned." The letter of Dichaves requested Equitable senior vice president of Equitable Ba nking Corp., Juan Luna branch (Binondo, Manila), Romualdo Dy Tan on Aug. 25, 199 9 that he be allowed to open an account in the name of Jose Velarde. "May I request that a savings account and a current account be opened with your Juan Luna branch for Jose Velarde c/o the undersigned, Dichaves said. "All other b anking transactions of Jose Velarde shall be coursed through the undersigned. The Velarde account was opened with a P1 deposit on Aug. 26, 1999. The next day the balance in Savings Account No. 0160-62501-5 at Equitable s Binondo-San Juan br anch rose to P81 million, according to Pimentel. The biggest amount withdrawn from the account was P500 million. This was most li kely the money debited from the account and credited to the trust account which Estrada opened on Feb. 4, 2000 before Ocampo, Equitable senior vice president, f or investment in the Wellex Group of William Gatchalian. The savings and current account of "Jose Velarde" had a zero balance on Nov. 13, 2000. The impeachment trial of then President Estrada started Dec. 3, 2000. The House filed the four articles of impeachment against the deposed President in O ctober last year. Copies of the 23 documents in the envelope given to media practitioners showed t hat the Velarde account had at one time P969,097,916.66 in total credits in Octo ber, 1999.

Certified true copies of the contents of the envelope were given by Barbo to Des ierto whose office has received charges against Estrada ranging from plunder to perjury.

Senate Majority Leader Francisco S. Tatad said the bank documents made public ye sterday supports the position of the 11 senators who voted "No" that the "Jose V elarde" bank account is not part of the article of impeachment hastily filed by former Speaker Manuel Villar. The vault was transferred to the Senate President's office from the office of th e Senate sergeant-at-arms headed by retired Brig. Gen. Leonardo Lopez. Pimentel, Desierto, and Barbo escorted the transport of the vault to Pimentel's office. Reacting to the results of the opening of the envelope, lawyer Raymund Fortun, o ne of the lawyers of deposed President Estrada, said the defense panel is not su rprised by the contents of the second envelope. Asked whether the opening closes the book on the impeachment trial after the Sen ate approved last week his resolution terminating the role of the Senate as an i mpeachment court, Pimentel said, "Well, at least as far as the contents of envel ope No. 2 are concerned." On the Dichaves letter, Pimentel said he was not sure whether the letter was an original as "it looks like a photocopy." "Whatever the verdict, the important thing is that the truth is out, that is all we are interested in as far as the Senate is concerned. We will not be a party to any cover up and that's why I insisted that the Senate president be authorize d to open this envelope," he added. What struck the senators and Romeo Capulong was that the Feb. 4, 2000, withdrawa l of P500 million coincided with a loan extended by "Jose Velarde" to William Ga tchalian, a presidential friend and head of the Wellex group. The date coincided with the testimony of star witness Clarissa Amarita Grey Ocam po, senior vice president of Equitable PCI Bank, that she saw deposed President Estrada sign as alias Jose Velarde in an investment agreement on the same date. Equitable PCI Bank Vice President Ceferino Ang denied that the Dichaves letter w as added by the bank. He further stated that the bank documents are computer cop ies. Capulong had observed that the letter appeared to have been hurriedly written an d had no letter head "which is strange." As the envelope opening ceremony was about to wind down, Pimentel said that Dich aves will have all the time to explain his side to the Ombudsman. Desierto said the documents turned over to him by the Senate would be used by hi s office in prosecuting Estrada for perjury, among others. Makati Rep. Joker Arroyo said the disclosure of the envelope s contents was anticl imactic at this point as these were already known to the public a few days after the Senate impeachment court voted 11-10 against opening the envelope. Pimentel turned over the documents to Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, whose office ha d requested the documents in connection with its investigation of the plunder ch arges against Mr. Estrada. "Whatever would be the verdict of history the important thing is the truth was o ut and that is all we are interested in as far as the Senate is concerned, Pimente

l said.

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