Focus shifts on Estrada's aide

Focus shifts on Estrada's aide

MANILA (AFP): Philippine President Joseph Estrada's alleged custodian for illegal gambling bribes deposited shopping bags filled with millions of pesos at several banks, according to bank officials who testified on Thursday at the leader's corruption trial.

They said the woman, identified as Yolanda Ricaforte, opened more than two dozen accounts in five branches of Equitable PCI Bank over the past 13 months.

The depositor variously described herself as a supplier of building materials, a real estate agent, travel agent, and exporter of fishery products, the witnesses said.

Ricaforte looked like a "very simple woman" who would walk into a suburban Manila bank carrying a "plastic bag" filled with "old, big bills, in the thousands and hundreds," branch manager Rosario Bautista told a Senate tribunal which is hearing corruption and other charges against Estrada.

Another manager, Edgardo Alcaraz, said Ricaforte walked into a suburban Manila branch in March with "four million pesos ($80,000) in cash" and sought out the branch manager to open several accounts.

Prosecutors allege Ricaforte's deposits were proceeds from a national protection racket for illegal lotteries called jueteng.

They say the racket was organized by the president and the proceeds were collected by his estranged friend, provincial Governor Luis Singson, the principal prosecution witness in the corruption trial.

Estrada has been impeached by the House of Representatives on corruption and other charges and if convicted by the Senate, will have to give up power.

The five managers who took the stand on Thursday said some of the checks Ricaforte deposited were drawn from the accounts of two Estrada friends, William Gatchalian and Singson.

"Because of the substantial amounts involved she was considered as one of my top depositors. As an individual she was the largest depositor," Bautista said.

The five bank officials said the depositor later withdrew most of the funds over a three-day period in April, purchasing five manager's checks totaling 109 million pesos ($2.18 million).

Singson testified last week that Ricaforte laundered about 200 million pesos in jueteng collections, and transferred them into the bank account of a presidential charity in April.