CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The arrest of Sen. Lito Lapid’s wife in Las Vegas for alleged bulk cash smuggling has boosted plans of former Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio to revive a plunder case he had filed but was dismissed by ex-Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez shortly before she resigned in May last year.
This, even as the camp of Lapid junked speculations that the senator’s wife Marissa was on her way to casinos when she was held at the Las Vegas International Airport.
“She and the senator have never gambled. They are never known to be fond of any form of gambling,” Lapid’s spokesperson Alex Marcelino told Punto.
Lapid himself could not immediately be contacted by phone yesterday, but he confirmed the other day the arrest of his wife, adding that she had already posted bail with the assistance of an American lawyer attending to her case.
In an interview, Panlilio said he will push for the Commission on Audit (COA) to revive the plunder case he had filed against both Lapid and his son Mark for funds worth P500 million allegedly missing from the lahar sand quarry income of the Pampanga provincial government during their terms as governor.
He said that the case of Marissa was similar to that of the sons of former Armed Forces comptroller retired Gen. Carlos Carcia whose plunder case was triggered by incident involving his two sons who were also held after failure to declare $100,000 cash at the San Francisco International Airport in 2009.
Panlilio recalled that the case he had filed against the Lapids was dismissed by Gutierrez two weeks before she stepped down as Ombudsman under threat from impeachment.
“The Ombudsman cited insufficiency of evidence, but COA has data on what happened in the quarrying industry during the terms of the Lapids and I have already proposed the refiling of the case,” Panlilio said.
Meanwhile, Marcelino said he was not sure why Marissa had been flying to Las Vegas recently, but theorized she was attending to the citizenship documents of her grandchildren by daughter Mitchi whose children were born in the US.
He also noted that Mark, who went on leave recently as general manager of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, is supposed to undergo schooling in the US.
Marissa was arrested after arriving at the Las Vegas International Airport last Jan. 15, But the arrest was based on her being caught with undeclared cash, totaling $50,000, at the same airport way back on Nov. 27 last year.
She was not detained during the incident and was even able to fly back to the Phlippines for the Christmas holidays.
On her return to Las Vegas, she was arrested based on a warrant issued last Jan. 5 by the Nevada district court. She posted bail for her liberty but was told by the court to wear a security bracelet that would enable monitoring of her movements and required to stay put at home within a county in Nevada unless she is permitted to go elsewhere.
The case was filed before US Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen who gave weight to the testimony of Albert Giangregorio, special agent of the Homeland Security Investigation.
Giangregorio said that when Marrisa arrived at the airport from Manila, she declared she “was not carrying currency or monetary instruments over $10,000 in US currency or a foreign currency equivalent.”
He said that when a Customs Border and Protection (CBP) officer “reexamined” her, Marissa said she also had P10,000. “CBP officers decided that an amended declaration would be accepted, and had her complete a currency reporting form in order to satisfy the reporting requirements,” he added in his affidavit.
But during a physical examination of Marissa’s carry-on luggage, a CBP officer identified in the document only as Johnson “identified an anomaly located along the bottom of the bag where the spacing threshold appeared to be thicker than normally found for the area of the suitcase that accommodates the telescoping luggage handle,” Giangregorio said
“The examination resulted in the discovery of two socks containing $10,000 each (total amount $20,000 USD) and one cloth bag containing an additional $20,000 USD concealed beneath the bag lining,” he said.
The affidavit related that when asked about the discovery, Marissa reportedly replied, “I’m sorry. It’s for my house.”
Giangregorio also said Marissa then apologized and repeated several times, “I screwed up.”
