Comelec chief's wife: I want half only of what is 'clean'

Patricia Paz Bautista, the estranged wife of Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson Andres Bautista, said on Tuesday that she only wants "half of what is clean" for the settlement.

"Let me make it clear: By law, I'm entitled to half of what Andy owns. But I want half only of what is clean. This is why I'm bringing it to the government to tell me which part is clean," Mrs. Bautista said in an interview on ANC.

"I want half of what is clean. If you tell me that P1 billion is clean, P500 million is clean, P300 million, I will get one half of what is clean. I would not do all of these and then get into the muck as well with all of these. I want a clean break," she added.

Mrs. Bautista said this after her husband claimed that she is asking for a P620-million settlement and has threatened to report him to President Rodrigo Duterte if he did not agree to the amount.

However, she said she asked for P260 million, with more or less 75 percent of it to be put in a trust fund for their children.

"No... again we had a mediator, we had a term sheet and the total including again was 85 percent [or] 75 percent of it was a trust for my kids, not for me, for my kids and I really wanted it that way," she said.

"So again, I was very willing already I said you know it's impossible for me at this point to take your word for, this is yours, this is not mine, this is my brother's... So I said okay, this amount as long as there's a trust for my kids, I'm good with," she added.

Mrs. Bautista submitted an affidavit to the NBI on August 1 saying that her husband allegedly has almost P1 billion ill-gotten wealth.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said he has already directed the NBI to look into the claim of Mrs. Bautista.

Five days before she submitted her affidavit, Mrs. Bautista met with President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacañang.

She told the President about the bank passbooks and other documents she has discovered detailing bank accounts and real estate properties in the name of her husband and some relatives.

The Comelec chair, in an interview on Unang Balita on Monday, dismissed his wife's claims and suspected their marital problem was the reason for her complaints.

"Ito po ay isang kaso ng pangingikil at panggigipit," he said. —Marlly Rome Bondoc/KG/KVD/KBK, GMA News