LACSON: MJ TO BREATHE NEW LIFE ON
SENATE PROBE OF $14 M-IMPSA BRIBE

Senator Panfilo M. Lacson today said he would revive a 12th Congress resolution seeking an investigation into the alleged $14 million pay-off that was made by the Argentinian firm Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima (Impsa) to some government officials in exchange for the approval of the $470 million contract to build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan hydroelectric plant.

For raising more questions than answers and with his attempt to twist the facts and his unprovoked attempt at character assassination to protect himself from a $14-million bribery mess, Mark Jimenez, in his new-found glorious state of mind, should be given a chance to shed light, and at the same time, be held accountable for this issue, Lacson said.

Lacson said the resolution intends to look into the circumstances, personalities and the real amount of bribe money involved in the pay-off.

As much as I dont want to dignify the twisted facts Mr. Jimenez is preaching, my principles dictate that I correct the lies he is peddling and expose the truth on this matter, Lacson said.

PS Resolution 477, which Lacson filed on November 18, 2002, stated that the decision to approve the Impsa contract appeared to be an offshoot of a favorable legal opinion issued by then Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, who is now facing extort and graft charges recommended by the Ombudsman.

In filing the resolution, Lacson said there is a need to unmask the identity of this government official/s who facilitated the approval of a contract disadvantageous to the government for some consideration, monetary or otherwise, for them to be prosecuted for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices law and for plunder.

Lacson said he is standing by his earlier statement that the Jimenez-Perez fiasco was a case of bribery and that the amount involved is $14 million, and not just $2 million as Jimenez insisted.

He reiterated that it was Jimenez himself who provided him information regarding the Impsa pay off as he admitted being beleaguered by Jimenez recent pronouncements clearing President Arroyos name in the bribery issue.

Lacson said the old Mark Jimenez I knew even asked him for a meeting during the latters house arrest in Miami, Florida sometime in 2003, supposedly to provide him with original copies of the checks involved in the Jose Pidal accounts of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

At the time, Lacson had just delivered a privilege speech at the Senate exposing the Pidal accounts.

(Jimenez) was also the one who invited me to visit him in Miami, Florida, after watching my Pidal expose and offered to give me the original copy of the checks. But when we went there, he gave me and Atty. Sigfrid Fortun the runaround for two nights and never gave me the copies of the checks he promised, he said.

The reason behind this sudden turnaround is known only to them, Mr. Jimenez and Mrs. Arroyo. I can only say that they truly deserve each other because they share so many similarities, Lacson said.