In a press conference earlier today, Patricia Bautista, the wife of Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Andres ‘Andy’ Bautista told reporters that she had signed an affidavit accusing her husband of accumulating at least PHP1 billion (USD20 million) in “unexplained wealth.”
“I understand that since Andy holds the position of Comelec chair, he is liable to be impeached should there exist valid and sufficient grounds to hold him in trial for an impeachable offense under Sec. 2, Article XI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution,” Patricia Bautista said in the affidavit.
According to a report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Patricia said her husband — also a former chairman of the agency tasked with recovering the ill-gotten wealth of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos — had wealth of his own hidden in overseas bank accounts as well as real estate investments in the Philippines and abroad.
The affidavit lists the following properties as assets not included in the chairman’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth:
• Thirty-five Luzon Development Bank (LDB) passbooks with a total balance of PHP329,220,962 (approx. USD6.5 million)
• A Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) dollar account amounting to USD12,778.30 (PHP641,000)
• An RCBC peso account with PHP257,931.60 (USD5,518)
• An HSBC account with HKD948,358.97 (PHP6.10 million)
• A condominium unit in One Bonifacio High Street at Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City
• A condo unit in The District in San Francisco, California
Patricia, who said she had been wanting to separate from her husband since 2013, wanted to “make a distinction between the ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ money that forms part of our conjugal property.” She said she could not, however, make the distinction herself because her husband controls “most of if not all” of their finances.
In addition to the bank accounts and real estate, Patricia said her husband also has business interests in foreign companies.
Companies named in the affidavit include:
• Bauman Enterprises Ltd., a company set up in the British Virgin Islands on Sept. 29, 2010; a trustee company set up with Bank of Singapore.
• Mantova International Ltd., founded in Darussalam, Brunei, in 2011.
• Mega Achieve Inc., established in Anguilla, a British territory in 2014.
Prior to submitting an affidavit to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) last August 1, Patricia was able to meet with President Rodrigo Duterte in late July to tell him about the alleged ‘unexplained’ wealth of her husband.
She said she spoke to Duterte out of “fear” of her husband “and his network.” She said she had also filed violence against women and children complaint against her husband for alleged “emotional and economic sabotage.”
‘Extortion’
Andy aired his side of the story in a radio interview with DZMM, a radio affiliate of ABS-CBN News, earlier today.
“This problem started in 2013 because it seemed there was a third party and this was known to many,” he said.
He shared that while he was on a trip to the US, his wife withdrew USD117,000 (PHP5.5 million) from their joint account and transferred it to her personal account.
He also said that when he got home, she also refused to let him enter their condominium unit.
After hours of pleading, Andy said his wife let him inside their home, only to find out that documents locked in home cabinets were missing, including his bank passbooks.
He said that the documents she took were later “doctored” and used evidence for his wife’s affidavit.
“In this situation, I am the victim. I am the victim of betrayal,” he told the ABS-CBN News Channel.
“I never thought a man could be raped. That is how I felt when I was prevented from entering my own house, when all of a sudden, the locked cabinets belonged to me were forced open, documents were taken without my consent.”
Andres Bautista said that aside from their marital issues, her public expose is “politically motivated.”
He told DZMM that he was preparing legal action against his wife. “In the coming days, that will be revealed,” he said.
