Bank VP Tells of Order to Hide Estrada Account

A senior bank official told the impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada on Tuesday that her boss ordered her to cover up Estrada’s ownership of a multimillion-dollar account under a false name.

The testimony by Clarissa Ocampo, senior vice president of Equitable PCI Bank, reopened the Senate’s trial after a 10-day recess as prosecutors pressed their case that Estrada hid an undeclared fortune in a bank run by a friend.

The trial resumed after a series of bombings Saturday killed 16 people and injured more than 100 in Manila, fueling tensions already high because of uncertainty over Estrada’s fate.

The opposition has accused Estrada allies of planting the bombs as a pretext to declare martial law. The government attributed the bombs to opposition forces or communist guerrillas trying to oust Estrada.

Estrada is on trial on charges of bribery, graft, betrayal of public trust and violation of the constitution, in the country’s first impeachment trial. A conviction on any charge by two-thirds of the 22-member Senate would force him from office.

In dramatic testimony before the holiday recess, Ocampo said she saw Estrada sign a $10-million check with the name “Jose Velarde” in February as a personal loan to the company of a friend, drawing from an account under that name.

On Tuesday, Equitable PCI legal officer Manuel Curato testified that he also watched Estrada sign the false name on the loan documents.

Ocampo testified Tuesday that on Dec. 12--after the trial began--then-bank Chairman George Go, a close friend of Estrada, told her to replace papers showing that a multimillion-dollar account belonged to “Jose Velarde.”

Ocampo said she was ordered to draft new documents showing the account was owned by businessman Jaime Dichaves, a close friend of Estrada. Dichaves later sent a letter to the Senate impeachment tribunal, saying the account was his.

Ocampo, who said she has been living in hiding during the trial, testified that the new documents tracing the account to Dichaves were never actually switched with the old ones because the account holder never sent her a letter authorizing the transfer of ownership.

But she said Dichaves signed the documents Dec. 13 in the office of Estelito Mendoza, a prominent member of Estrada’s defense team at the trial.

Mendoza acknowledged Tuesday that Ocampo, Dichaves and others were in his office that day but said no documents were signed in his presence.