Guingona Slaps PhilRem Prexy with Subpoena to Compel Company Messenger to Finally Appear in Next Hearing

FRUSTRATED by the repeated absence of a key witness to the flow of laundered money, Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Teofisto "TG" Guingona III has issued a subpoena compelling PhilRem messenger, Mark Palmares, to appear in the sixth public hearing on the US$81-million heist from the Central Bank of Bangladesh. "Niloloko ninyo kami (you have been making fools of us) and your credibility is running very, very low," Guingona fumed PhilRem president, Salud Bautista. "I did not send a subpoena to your messenger last time because you made a commitment that you will bring him over."

In the fourth Senate Blue Ribbon hearing on April 5, Palmares was allegedly not feeling well and could not attend the session. In the succeeding April 12 hearing, Bautista again said that Palmares was not feeling well and instead submitted an affidavit bearing the messenger's testimony.

In earlier hearings, Palmares was alleged to have personally delivered the first tranche of cash to a certain Wei Kang Shu in Solaire casino in the company his employers. The latter presented signed receipts covering the transaction and others that followed.

But testimonies of former RCBC Jupiter Branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito, Kam Sin Wong, alias "Kim Wong," and Bautista do not tally.

Wong claimed that Wei Kang Xu, the supposed recipient and beneficiary of the cash delivery, was never in Solaire to receive the laundered money. Wong also collected subsequent sums from the Bautistas's home but his name never came up in PhilRem's earlier testimony.