Aquino spokesperson on plunder raps over spurious BSP circular: ‘Ang pumatol sa baliw, baliw’ 

The spokesperson of former President Benigno Aquino III on Friday called the plunder and graft raps filed against Aquino “patently absurd," as the basis of the complaint were based on Facebook pages and fake news blogs. 

“How does one answer a complaint so patently absurd on its face? It defies logic, which is not surprising since it came from a fake news site,” lawyer Abigail Valte posted on her Facebook page. 

Valte was also Aquino’s deputy spokesperson during his administration. 

Valte pointed out that there was no “Department of Nutrition and Local Government,” as the complaint referred to former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas as the head of such agency. 

She also said that both the secretaries of Department of Justice and the Department of Interior and Local Government are not members of the Monetary Board. 

“Even the law alleged to have violated - Republic Act (RA) 7655 - has nothing to do with the supposed crime. RA 7655 is the law that raised the minimum wage for househelpers,” Valte said. 

“The blatant disregard for simple facts is telling of the provenance of the allegations. Sana ay hindi na piliting pasagutin pa ang dating pangulo, dahil napaalala sa amin ang kasabihang ito sa Tagalog: ang pumatol sa baliw, mas baliw,” she added.

The complaint filed against Aquino and his allies before the Office of the Ombudsman was based on a spurious document supposedly issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Also named as respondents to the complaint were Roxas, Senator Leila de Lima, who served as Aquino’s justice secretary, Senator Franklin Drilon, BSP Governor Amado Tetangco Jr., and former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima. De Lima was named in the complaint as “Secretary of the Department of Finance.” 

Lawyer Fernando Perito and one Rogelio Cantoria, who claimed to have worked for the BSP from 1976 to 1995, accused Aquino and five others of supposedly transferring billions of dollars worth of gold reserves to a company based in Thailand. 

Perito and Cantoria cited as basis for their complaint BSP Circular No. 49 Series of 2014, which supposedly authorized the Centennial Energy Company Limited based in Thailand to produce and issue the “Limited States Dollars Currency” of $100 amounting to a total of $3 trillion.

The money will supposedly be used to fund “humanitarian projects and for ASEAN countries.”

A certification attached to the BSP circular in the complaint indicated that 3,500 metric tons of gold bars registered under the name of “Ferdinand E. Marcos” were taken out of the country and deposited in a foreign bank. The document bore the supposed signatures of De Lima, Roxas, Tetangco, Drilon and Purisima.

The BSP’s website, however, showed no such Circular 49 issued in 2014. All circulars issued by the central bank carried three-digit numbers.

The supposed BSP Circular 49 only appeared on Facebook pages such as “Kingdom Filipina Hacienda Sovereign Host Nation” and news blogs. — RSJ, GMA News