President Renato Ampil, District Governor Alex Huang, Past District Governors, Past Presidents, Ladies and Gentlemen, My Fellow Rotarians Good Afternoon.
I have not accepted invitations for quite a time now.
But let me say that until now I remain a Rotarian thru and thru.
President Ampil comes from my Alma Mater The Ateneo de Manila and was one of the outstanding customs officials during his time. Just like Benny Laguesma who was an outstanding Labor Secretary.
Those who ask Gloria to file a separation are professing that they are stating this for the national interest. Let me humbly engage this assertion. A senator widely identified with narcopolitics, facing a Supreme Court judgment, an adverse Senate Committee Report, and weak prospect for presidential victory in 2004 sought to preempt all these by bringing about a charge of corruption in the plenary floor of the Senate of the Republic. But from his first speech he wa scraping the bottom of the barrel in his charges by digging up private transactions of private citizens that took place before my wife even became president. If they are private transactions by private citizens, where is the crime? Where is the corruption?
My brother's Jose Pidal account, opened in 1997 under an alias for security reasons, was closed in August 2001 before the Anti Money Laundering Law was approved. Where is the crime? Where is the corruption? Where is the plunderous balance as of July 2003? Manufactured and fabricated evidence.
Yes, the squid tactic senator tried to implicate my wife in his second speech but that second speech was composed of spurious transactions and spurious bank accounts.
I am showing you 5 bank denials of the accounts that Lacson bragged about in his second speech to prove that evidences were manufactured or fabricated to perpetuate the lies and deceive our people. Manufactured! Fake! Fabricated evidence against a private person.
Who then is the criminal? Who is the falsifier? Who is the corrupt?
But if the Senator persists in his accusations, then why is he afraid to file his case in court? Even in his speech, he never dared claim that the money came from a government favor or contract. The only substantial charge he tried to muster was supposedly money amounting to P1.35 million from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, which he claimed was deposited in a Pidal account. It turned out that the check identified was a lotto prize money paid to a certain Fortunato Tiratira and the amount was only P23,000. Where is the crime? Where is the corruption? Who is the falsifier? Who is the criminal?
Most certainly he could never dare claim that the money was obtained from criminal activities such as kidnapping, drug pushing or terrorism, the three predicate crimes covered by the anti-money laundering law. Hilariously, he himself characterized the funds as campaign contributions. Certainly not illegal and unlawful.
To protect my person, I have filed a libel case against Senator Lacson since he has been doing his rounds in the media lambasting me unjustly, once upon a time the Senate suspended a Senator for the rest of his term because he made charges he could not substantiate. I am filing a case against him the the Ethics Committee because he has used the power of Parliamentary Immunity of the Senate unfairly and maliciously. No evidence, no substantiated charge, no court case, only gossip and malicious lies.
The allusions and insinuations of an illicit affair are grossly uncalled for. The pictures, the rhetorical questions and malicious statements were all stage managed to destroy me and my family. I cannot understand how a person in conscience can find pleasure and satisfaction by destroying another person's family.
I am not inexperienced in the role of First Gentleman, as I have always been playing that role to my wife and children since the time Gloria joined the DTI in 1986. I was a lawyer and a Rotary Club President who received the valued prize of Most Outstanding President. But because Gloria's public service demanded so much of her time, I was the one primarily taking care of our growing children. I took care of them in the house, I took care of them in the subdivision basketball court. I am what you call your average stage husband and father. I enjoy that role up to today and my dream, as all your dreams, is to see our family through as we age gracefully and as we play with our "apos." Like my little angel Michaela.
I hurt when I see my family hurting from all these vicious lies. Two speeches delivered. Not one evidence. Not one substantiated charge. Not one case in court. And yet malicious lies, rumors and gossips affecting so many people were laid out to hurt me, my wife and children.
I cannot take it when I know my wife whom I love very much and who is working so hard for the country is pained unnecessarily. I cannot take it when my daughter Luli who is very close to me and whom I love so much suffers from poison text messages. I cannot take it when Mikey and Dato, my two boys who look up to me are crushed and angered as they see their father, our family, pilloried no end.
I love my family and I love my wife. Gloria and I have been married now for 35 years and we have been blessed with three wonderful children and one beautiful granddaughter. Like any couple, we have our ups and downs, and our moments of joy and sadness. But through all these times, we have been together, our love has sustained us through the trials.
I would like to grow old with my wife and my family.
I thank all of you who have shown support and encouragement in these times of trials and persecution. I ask only for continuing prayers for me and my family. |