Garcia demolishes offshore accounts yarn

MANILA—Commission on Elections (COMELEC) chairman George Erwin Garcia completely demolished the allegation of SAGIP Party List Rep. Rodante Marcoleta and former congressman Edgar Erice that he secretly owns 49 offshore bank accounts and properties spread out from Singapore, Hongkong, mainland China, USA, Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.

At a press conference at the COMELEC main office on August 8, 2024, Garcia, flanked by other poll commissioners, showed the details of his travels in the last two years with Japan and South Korea the farthest countries he visited.

The travel record refuted Marcoleta’s claim that the poll chief owned properties and accounts in the US mainland, Bahamas and Cayman Islands and mainland China as these are places that Garcia has never visited in his entire life. “I don’t even know where the Bahamas is,” Garcia said.

As for the other accounts Garcia purportedly owned at the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and 5 more local banks, Garcia also showed certifications from these banks that he does not have any account with them.

A certification from the Standard Chartered First Bank in South Korea also affirmed that there was “no record of remittance” to 6 Korean banks that Marcoleta claimed were owned by Garcia and that deposits were made to these accounts on several dates.

At a press conference last August 1, Marcoleta also averred that a “volunteer” managed to deposit $100 dollars each to two bank accounts in the name of Garcia at the Cayman Island National Bank and Scotiabank Cayman Island. “I am not alleging anything, I am proving that the accounts are active,” Marcoleta said.

However, inquiries made at these banks showed that due to the new rules on money laundering, a depositor needs to have properties or relatives in the Cayman Islands and would have to appear personally to open an account.

Garcia also noted that for as long as the account number is correct, the name of the recipient would not matter especially during online transactions, as he showed trial bank deposits and transfers in the name of ‘BATMAN’ and even in the name of ‘RODANTE MARCOLETA.’

Garcia added their investigation disclosed that the sender in the two Cayman accounts turned out to be Jaleo Consulting LLC whose chief officer is Jose Herrera.

Herrera, in turn, is an officer of Albatross Tech Corporation, a 100-percent subsidiary of Smartmatic, the country’s former poll automation provider whose contract was terminated by the COMELEC in favor of Miru Systems of South Korea.

Incidentally, Albatross and Smartmatic occupy the same business address at No. 26 Pine Road Belleville St. Michael, Barbados.

“So, who really owns these accounts,” Garcia asked.

Garcia added he has already contacted the US Department of Justice to launch an investigation into the involvement of Smartmatic, thru Jaleo Consulting, for election interference in the Philippines and money laundering. The COMELEC is presently preoccupied with its preparations for next year’s elections with the filing of certificate of candidacy to start this October.

Likewise, the COMELEC is also in the midst of a campaign for voters’ registration not only in the country but also abroad as it targets to register some 60 million voters before the polls open next year.

Garcia said he would wait for the result of the ongoing investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) that he requested and the result of his inquiry with the US Justice Department then file the necessary criminal charges against all those involved in the conspiracy to destroy his name and that of the COMELEC.

He added the “common denominator” in all these attacks against him and the COMELEC is Marcoleta’s insistence to use the more than 90,000 vote counting machines (VCMs) of Smartmatic for next year’s elections.

However, these VCMs have already been certified as “not serviceable” anymore, as they only have a service life of years dating from their first use during the 2016 elections.

As far back as 2018, the COMELEC had already passed a resolution to discard Smartmatic’s VCMs after the 2022 polls. ###