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Raissa Robles

Woman tells  senators she also passed president's brother-in-law proceeds from illegal gambling

A woman testified yesterday that she handed over money from illegal gambling to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's son, Juan Miguel, and brother-in-law, Ignacio, on orders of a police official.

Sandra Cam also stunned a Senate inquiry panel  when she claimed the official, newly retired chief superintendent Restituto Mosqueda, had boasted to her and three senior police officers that Mrs Arroyo owed him a big favour. He said he had manufactured evidence that extricated the president's husband, Jose Miguel, from a money scandal two years ago.

In an apparent attempt  at damage control, Mrs Arroyo promptly went on radio to say: 'I have ordered the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation on my son, brother-in-law, and even my husband.

'Nobody in my family or any of my relatives is above the law.'

Meanwhile, the military placed Manila on 'red alert' yesterday to thwart 'internal security threats', a spokesman said.

Dousing reports of a military coup allegedly timed to coincide with  Independence Day celebrations on Sunday, Captain Ramon Zagala  insisted: 'We will stick to the chain of command and will respect the duly-constituted elected officials.'

Ms Cam's claims provided the first direct evidence against presidential relatives, and a money trail.

She disclosed that in  December her friend Mr Mosqueda asked her to deliver 400,000 pesos ($57,000) to Congressman Ignacio Arroyo, who  counted the cash, then demanded to know why it was 100,000 pesos short.

When she told him that a tropical typhoon had dampened the collection from the illegal gambling game jueteng, he allegedly replied: 'Tell your boss there is no such thing as a storm for me. What was agreed on should be followed.'

When she handed the 500,000 pesos to  Juan Miguel Arroyo, he merely thanked her without opening the package.

Ms Cam said Mr Mosqueda used her bank accounts to launder 30 million pesos in  jueteng takings from August last year until last month.  She also prepared a monthly cash delivery for the Arroyos, totalling at least 5  million pesos. For this, Mr Mosqueda paid her 100,000 pesos a month.

Mr Mosqueda denied  her allegations but admitted she was a close friend. The two Arroyos called  her claims malicious and false and both said they would sue her for libel.

What caught the public's attention more  was Ms Cam's serious allegation of a conspiracy involving President Arroyo, her husband and brother-in-law.

Ms Cam said that on October 30, when Mrs Arroyo visited Albay province - an area under then superintendent Mosqueda's jurisdiction - he had boasted  he would get Mrs Arroyo to sack one of her aides because he was 'highly influential'.

True enough, that aide was sacked. Mr Mosqueda then boasted, 'if not for me, the Arroyo administration would have fallen'.

Mr Mosqueda  disclosed that when the president's husband was accused of laundering money using bank accounts under the fictitious name, 'Jose Pidal', his brother Ignacio had stepped in and claimed the accounts as his.

'It took us weeks [for Ignacio] to practise' signing the Pidal signature, Mr Mosqueda disclosed to Ms Cam. 'And as crime lab director [then] I was the one who could testify ... I certified that the signature was his,' he said.



I paid off Arroyo's son, witness says