Patricia sticks it to Andy
ABRAVE wife exposing her husband’s alleged corruption. A cornered husband denying everything. A family with four kids in the middle. Nearly a billion pesos in unexplained wealth. A year-ago election whose results will now be questioned. We can’t make this all up. This was just a regular news day in the Philippines.
The soap opera in the Trump White House is nothing compared to our weekly bombshells, the last one being the bloody police raid on the Parojinogs of Ozamiz, tagged by government as a narco-family. Then news broke that Patricia CruzBautista, wife of Commission on Elections chairman Andres Bautista, has exposed her husband’s hidden wealth complete with evidentiary documentation.
The crux of the matter is Mrs. Bautista’s claim – which she formalized in an affidavit to the National Bureau of Investigation – that her husband holds nearly a billion pesos in 38 bank accounts, in real estate holdings and overseas investments. His 2016 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) said he had only 1176.3 million.
If found guilty, the Comelec chief can be charged with various criminal offenses and removed from public office. Former chief justice Renato Corona was impeached for the “flimsy” reason of not declaring his dollar deposits. The charges against the Comelec chairman are sturdier, in fact six inches thick of papers of financial information and bank passbooks, according to Mrs. Bautista.
But Mr. Bautista denies the allegations of his estranged wife and said that she is only trying to extort money from him. A former lawyer, his media counter-offensive was tremendous and filled with high drama. If the morning news cycle belonged to Patricia, Andy got right back at her in the afternoon and evening. “I’m the victim here… of betrayal,” he said.
While in fighting form, Mr. Bautista’s arguments were off-tangent and frankly, sounded misogynistic. He said it was like he was “raped” when he was prevented from entering his own house and found his cabinets forced open. Rape is a vicious crime and no one but actual victims can really know this feeling of abuse. Bautista scored really low in this argument.
He also claimed his wife cheated on him, the reason he said for their separation in 2013. Asked about this, Patricia’s lawyer Lorna Kapunan retorted: “So what if it’s true, but then it’s not.” Truly, the focus should be on possible violations of the law, and not whether or not any party was involved in extra-marital affairs or had kinky predilections.
But we’re human after all, and there was much prurient curiosity on the love lives of the rich and famous. So in just a day, everyone logged on knew about Patricia’s alleged boyfriend, and those really curious unearthed the months-old blind items about the escapades of one “Angry Bird” (the A.B. reference was just too obvious) involving prostitutes and one mean-looking whip.
Taking a page from Atty. Kapunan, we say who cares if people like to do it a la Fifty Shades of Grey as long as they do it in the privacy of their own bedrooms? What people care about is whether or not any public money was misused or stolen.
The thing is, this is not just a dispute between husband and wife. Andy Bautista’s job as head of Comelec puts him in a very sensitive position. Whether he admits it or not, he can make or break a politician’s future. He holds a very important, powerful post and he should always be beyond reproach.
Critics say Bautista has always favored the Liberal Party of former president Benigno Aquino III, who appointed him chairman in 2015, just a year before the presidential elections. His refusal to heed criticisms of the Smartmatic automated voting system had also put into question his neutrality. But he claims the May, 2016 elections was among the fairest he’s seen.
The only thing that can resolve this issue between Patricia and Andy is not a marriage counselor. Their marriage appears to be beyond repair. Only a full-blown investigation by the NBI, plus concurrent hearings by both houses of Congress, can uncover the truth and determine its implications for last year’s pivotal elections. It will be a hard truth but still: Let justice be done though the heavens fall.