Mike Arroyo implicated in Jose Pidal controversy anew

(Updated 12:07 p.m.) A retired police general on Monday implicated First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike" Arroyo in the multi-million peso Jose Pidal accounts. During Monday's Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the Philippine National Police (PNP) choppers controversy, Sen. Panfilo Lacson presented retired Chief Superintendent Restituto Mosqueda to prove that Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy" Arroyo had allegedly always been spinning lies to save his brother Mike Arroyo. Mosqueda, former head of the PNP crime laboratory, said it wasn't true that Iggy Arroyo owned of the Jose Pidal accounts. "Walong taon na kinimkim ko ito, hindi ako makatulog kung iniisip ko itong ginagawa ko," he said. In 2003, Iggy claimed to have opened the Jose Pidal accounts in two local banks for security purposes. Back then, Lacson claimed that Mike Arroyo owned the Jose Pidal accounts. Contacted by GMA News Online, Mike Arroyo's lawyer, Inocencio Ferrer Jr. maintained that his client "is not the owner of the Jose Pidal accounts." 'Under pressure?' In the hearing, Mosqueda said that former Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno in August 2003 who "gave the instruction to me to make it appear that Iggy was the owner (of the Jose Pidal accounts)." "At that time I was under pressure," he said. He said Iggy even went to the PNP crime laboratory to copy the signature on the Jose Pidal account. Mosqueda said both Puno and Iggy commended him for his work, even promising promotion and an all-expense-paid trip to Hong Kong. But Puno, who was present during the hearing, called Mosqueda a liar. "That is a total lie. I was a civilan and I did not know him until I joined the department," he said. He likewise said that he was not even Interior secretary in 2003. He was appointed in 2006. — RSJ/MRT, GMA News