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Patricia Bautista on P3-M credit debt: I had to pay for my kids’ schooling


Lawyer Lorna Kapunan on Thursday confirmed that Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista bailed his wife Patricia Paz Bautista out of her P3.2-million credit card debt—which, Patricia said, she was paying back with interest.

Kapunan read out Mrs. Bautista's text message during an interview on dzBB, two days after the poll chief said he bailed his estranged wife out of her credit card debt in 2012.

"'My three-million credit card debt accumulated over twelve years. I never got a personal budget'," Kapunan quoted Patricia to have said.

"'Had to pay for, among other things, my kids' schooling, until they reached prep, pre-school, nursery, kinder', siya ang gumastos," the lawyer added.

Mrs. Bautista said that she borrowed money from her husband with interest.

"'I took out a loan from him with interest with the 3.3 million'," Kapunan said, quoting Mrs. Bautista. Then she added, "Binabayaran niya, with interest pa, sa asawa niya. 'I have paper proof to show how many months I paid.'"

The poll chief told had told the press that the spat between his wife was an extortion scheme driven by money and marital problems.

Kapunan said she advised Patricia to return to her home in Pacific Plaza Towers in Bonifacio Global City.

"Sabi niya, 'That's why temporarily I'm staying somewhere, you know, in a friend's house, to let him cool down'," the lawyer told dzBB.

"But always she would be in the morning with the children and when they come home, it's not true that she abandoned them, and I told her, go back," she added.

'Not financially independent'

When asked during the interview if Mrs. Bautista was financially independent, Kapunan said that Patricia's "only job" at the time was in her mother's high-end salon business.

"No, in fact, worse thing is, her only job was with her mother sa Franck Provost where she was paid a salary like an employee, and then cinut pa ng nanay niya iyon," she said.

Patricia's mother Baby Cruz, holds the franchise for French salon chain Franck Provost in the Philippines.

Kapunan said that Mrs. Bautista, who is defended by an entire legal team, was not paying her to handle her case against the chairman and serve as her spokesperson.

"Truthfully? Oo, love and affection ang bayad," the lawyer said. — Margaret Claire Layug/BM, GMA News

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