Sen. Rodante Marcoleta said it was “improbable” for him to have conspired with Guteza to concoct a detailed story about Leyte Rep. and former Speaker Martin Romualdez’s alleged receipt of kickbacks.
Marcoleta countered Guteza’s affidavit recanting his earlier claims about delivering cash-filled suitcases to Romualdez, with the senator saying that threats to Guteza’s family forced him to take back his earlier story.
“Meanwhile, it is more believable that the threats to the life and/or liberty of his wife and children forced Guteza to sign an outrageous statement,” Marcoleta said in a statement on Facebook.
Marcoleta’s Facebook page is handled by an administrator since the senator is detained for a plunder case.
In his recantation, Guteza said he did not deliver cash to Romualdez’s house contrary to what he told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
He said former lawmaker Mike Defensor and Marcoleta only pressured him to sign the affidavit implicating Romualdez in the receipt of kickbacks from flood control projects, and that he was promised cash and scholarships.
He said this took place during a meeting at a Japanese restaurant a day before he appeared in the Senate as a surprise witness.
Marcoleta said Guteza’s new affidavit was not a surprise, given the alleged ordeal he was subjected to.
According to him, Guteza was “virtually rendered incommunicado and held under the custody of persons only he can identify” after his Senate appearance.
He claimed that Guteza was made to read a statement on camera denying knowledge of the cash deliveries and accusing him and Defensor of orchestrating the whole thing.
He also claimed that Guteza told his wife that he had to sign the new statement to protect his family from potential danger, and that his wife supposedly admitted that they were threatened by the same people holding Guteza.
Marcoleta also questioned Guteza’s new affidavit recanting his claims, saying it only contained a general denial and a “physically implausible and/or psychologically improbable” version of events.
He said they could not have drafted Guteza’s affidavit implicating Romualdez in a single afternoon, as Guteza said in his new affidavit.
He said Guteza was then a complete stranger to him.
“It is improbable for myself and Rep. Defensor to concoct a detailed account of the massive transport of money in luggages within one hour in a restaurant,” he said.
In that time, he could not have probed Guteza’s character, trusted him, rewrote his account of events, and instructed him about the next steps to take, he said.