Romualdez money, guns discovered
POLICE seized yesterday 13 boxes of newly printed P100-bills estimated to be worth at least P100 million from the driver of a brother of Mrs. Imelda R. Marcos.
Brig. Gen. Narciso Cabrera, Manila police chief, said the cache was found in a van driven by an employee of Coast Guard Commodore Alfredo Romualdez, a brother of Ms. Marcos.
“This is a proud moment for me,” said Cabrera, a former Marcos supporter, pointing out that Pat. Roland Mendoza and Pat. Reynaldo Castro, who seized the money, turned down a bribe to let the go from a Coast Guard escort of the van.
The soldier, Sgt. Wilfredo C. Co, 35, of 13 Signal Village, Taguig and the van’s driver, Arturo T. Tabutol, 32, of 1816 Int. Dapo St., Pandacan, Manila, were detained.
He said he only opened a corner of one box and found freshly printed bills before he turned it over to higher authorities.
An aid of Cabrera said the van was registered as a vehicle of Malacanang.
by TONY BERGONIA
IN A related development an arms cache reportedly belonging to former Amb. Benjamin Romualdez was seized by mobile patrol units of the Quezon City police as it was being delivered to an undisclosed location afternoon Wednesday.
A Kadiwa delivery truck reportedly hauled the cache from the house of Romualdez at Aguado St. near Malacanang palace and was spotted by mobile patrol units of the Q.C. police at the intersection of Tulip and Magnolia streets in Bgy. Roxas, Quezon City.
Police took custody of a Philippine Marine soldier who was in the Kadiwa truck when it was apprehended. He was identified as Pvt. Dario Amboy, 36.
Taken from the arms cache were three pieces of caliber .762 machine guns, four pcs. of Galil sub-machine guns, 17 boxes of ammunitions with 1,000 cartridges each, 43 rifle machineguns.
Amboy refused to say where the cache was bound for but said it was picked up from the Romualdez’ house.
by JERRY ESPLANADA
A HIGH-ranking Philippine National Bank official yesterday sought the help of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in asking President Corazon Aquino to stop the payment of P17,690,554.65 in money market placement in the name of former Metro Manila Gov. Imelda Romualdez Marcos and her sister Conchita Romualdez Yap.
The official who asked not to be identified said they tried to contact New AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Fidel Ramos the whole morning yesterday but failed.
“We are not supposed to disclose this transaction because of the ‘confidentiality of deposits’ ruling of banks but with the demise of the Marcos regime, we find it immoral not to let the country know about it,” the official was quoted as saying.
He said they were confident Pres. Aquino could do something about the bank transaction.
In a meeting at an Escolta restaurant shortly before noon yesterday, the official and four other PNB executives furnished the Philippine Daily Inquirer a xerox copy of the bill payable to either Ms. Marcos or Ms. Yap, who is a senior vice president of Philippine National Bank.
The amount earns a 17% interest per annum which is equivalent to P3,007,394.29.
The placement matured last Tuesday, Feb. 25.
Sources who said the money market placement had been renewed a couple of times also revealed that “a thorough check is being made on the Romualdez-Yap file.”
Ms. Yap could not be reached for comment.
Tension pervaded at the PNB head office yesterday since bank officials expected Marcos cronies to start withdrawing their deposits, sources added.
