COMMISSION on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista said Thursday he was not quitting his post, that he was open to any investigation and would let a court decide if he was guilty or not.
He made the announcement in front of hundreds of Comelec employees who gathered at the Comelec’s main lobby to show their support for him.
Bautista described as blackmail and extortion the claim of his wife Patricia who exposed his alleged ill-gotten wealth amounting to almost P1 billion.
“Let the court decide on those matters,” Bautista said. He showed a supposed letter from Patricia detailing her financial and real property demands from him.
The letter, the photos of which was tweeted by GMA News’ Tina Panganiban-Perez, was prepared by Patricia’s legal counsel Lorna Kapunan whose signature appears in the document.
According to the letter, Patricia wanted Bautista to give her P500 million in three installments of two P200,000, and P100,000.
Kapunan on Thursday confirmed that Bautista bailed his wife Patricia Paz Bautista out of her P3.2-million credit card debt which, Patricia said, she was paying back with interest.
Kapunan read out Patricia’s text message during an interview on dzBB two days after Bautista said he bailed his estranged wife out of her credit card debt in 2012.
“My three-million credit card debt accumulated over 12 years. I never got a personal budget,” Kapunan quoted Patricia as saying.
“Had to pay for, among other things, my kids’ schooling until they reached prep, pre-school, nursery, kinder.”
Bautista said he was ready to face possible legislative probes by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
But he faces another corruption accusation, and this time on the alleged “selling” of decisions by the poll body.
Bautista said Patricia asked for P620 million and several properties as settlement.
Patricia claimed that her husband’s net worth was P1.2 billion, and contrary to his declared net worth of P176.3 million in his 2016 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, a document government officials are required to submit.
