Comelec chair's wife denies romantic relationship with businessman

Patricia Bautista, the estranged wife of Commission on Elections chairperson Andres Bautista, on Tuesday denied the allegation of her husband that she has a romantic relationship with someone else.

Asked on ANC if she was seeing someone else, Mrs. Bautista said, "No."

On Tuesday, The Philippine Star identified the alleged "third party" as businessman Alvin Lim.

Mrs. Bautista denied they have a romantic relationship, and said, "We're friends, we're very good friends. We work together. So if you see pictures of us together, it's normal. We work together."

She clarified that their relationship has not gone beyond friendship. "We're very close. We're both energy healers. People can interpret that the way they want."

Mrs. Bautista recently exposed her husband's alleged P1-billion ill-gotten wealth.

The Comelec chair, meanwhile, on Monday said his wife's claims about his alleged ill-gotten wealth may have stemmed from their marital problems.

"Matagal na po kaming may problemang mag-asawa na ngayon ay binabahiran ng pulitika," Bautista said in an interview on Unang Balita. "Kaya nga po kami may problema, nung 2013 pa, meron na po siya sigurong ibang minamahal."

Mrs. Bautista on Tuesday said the rumor about her and Lim has been going on for a few years now.

"This is a rumor that was started by his [Lim's] ex-girlfriend Margarita Fores four, five years ago and it's still there. And I've never said anything because for me, what people think of me is not my business. It's up to them, right? I'm not going to convince anybody," she said.

However, she challenged Bautista to be very careful when bringing up infidelity.

"But at the end of the day if he wants to talk about infidelity, I would be very careful if I were him because again I can defend whatever he throws at me. I don't know if he can do the same," she said.

Mrs. Bautista added that a lot of people will be affected if the Comelec chair will talk about infidelity.

"I have four children and they're boys. I don't want to go there," she said.

Mrs. Bautista also said talking about infidelity will just distract people from the main issue.

"It will just distract from all of these. And this is the problem. My domestic problems have been there for a long time, even before five years ago. And people who know me know that, right? So even they were like, 'God, it's a distraction again' to distract from what the issue is, right?" she added.

"This [referring to alleged ill-gotten wealth] is the issue. Not my issue," Mrs. Bautista said.

"We have enough drama already in our country, in the world. We don't  need another telenovela. I'm not gonna burden people with my sob story because it's... what for?" she said.

"So this, we're not gonna waste airtime talking about that. But if he would like to do that, like I said, I can defend myself. Can he? You know, it's up to him," she added. —KG/KVD, GMA News