PUT CELSO IN JAIL - ROXAS

Vice-presidential race frontrunner Senator Mar Roxas today challenged authorities to find and put to jail pre-need scammer Celso delos Angeles if reports are true that the businessman has been living in a condominium near the St. Luke's Medical Center in defiance of court orders he should be confined in the hospital.

If this is true, Roxas said there is nobody to blame but President Arroyo because her administration has shown nothing but total disregard of the rule of law and treated with kid gloves its allies involved in scams like Celso de los Angeles, whose Legacy Group of pre-need companies defrauded billions of pesos of savings of thousands of middle-class Filipino families, and even former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante, a trusted confidante of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, who remains scot-free despite Senate and an Ombudsman panel's recommendation that he face plunder charges for his role in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

"We must bring to justice those who steal from our people, whether in business or in government. This is what Senator Noynoy Aquino and I will proceed to do when we win in the May elections," said Roxas in reference to the platform against corruption pushed by him and Aquino as LP bets for President and Vice-President, respectively.

The wanton disregard for the rule of law is what President Arroyo and her allies, including a not-so-secret partner in the May elections - the Nacionalista Party of Senator Manuel Villar -- want to continue despite overwhelming desire among our people for reforms in all levels of government and society, Roxas added.

"The voters must not elect those who will allow the likes of Celso de los Angeles and Jocjoc Bolante to go scot-free even if they have clearly stolen from public and/or private coffers. It is clear that President Arroyo has found an ally in making this possible with her Villarroyo coalition," he added.

De los Angeles is facing multiple cases of syndicated estafa for absconding billions of pesos in funds from the Legacy group of pre-need companies, including 12 rural banks, which were invested by tens of thousands of families, many of them middle-class, for education and additional retirement pension plans.

Roxas, who is leading all pre-election surveys for voter preferences in the vice-presidential race, initiated and led the exhaustive Senate investigation last year into the collapse of the Legacy group and other pre-need companies.

Based on the evidence he gathered in the investigation, Roxas filed along with several Legacy victims a number of syndicated estafa cases against De los Angeles and other Legacy officers.