Ex-envoy arrested
By Cecille Suerte Felipe
The Philippine Star
February 16, 2012 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Former ambassador Francisco “Paqui†Ortigas III was arrested yesterday by the police on a complaint of concubinage filed by Madrigal heiress Susana Ba-yot, his wife of 43 years.
Ortigas, 67, was arrested by operatives of the Southern Metro Manila-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) armed with a warrant of arrest issued by Pasig Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 72 Judge Joy Nerves Casihan-Dumlao.
The former ambassador to Mexico had just come from a meeting with his lawyers at the Tektite Towers at the family-developed Ortigas business district in Pasig City when policemen led by Chief Inspector Bernouly Abalos picked him up.
Abalos said Ortigas and his lawyers Alfred Molo and Elizabeth Loriega voluntarily went with them to work on posting bail of P10,000 for his temporary liberty.
“He (Ortigas) did not resist arrest and cooperated with the police,†he said.
Ba-yot accused her husband and his personal secretary Ma. Antonia Legarda of concubinage. Both Ortigas and Legarda have denied the allegations.
“Judge Dumlao signed the warrant on Tuesday and we were furnished a copy. We served the warrant (of arrest) at his office. Our only function is to account for a person with warrant of arrest,†Abalos explained.
Abalos said Ortigas was booked, photographed and fingerprinted at the CIDG office in Pasig City as part of police procedure.
Following his arrest, Ortigas issued a statement to the media.
“He doesn’t like to be interviewed by the media, that is his policy since the beginning,†Loriega explained.
Ortigas said in his statement: "I am saddened by having to endure the course of events, which continue to turn a private matter between me and my wife Susana Ortigas into a public spectacle."
Ortigas said his arrest "was so obviously designed to ensure my public humiliation. Thus it would be only logical for me to expect my detractors, who include a cabal of individuals out to please my wife, will continue to exhaust all means in their attempts to malign my person."
“And those vicious attacks against me manifest how these people are evidently devoid of the basic ethics or morals found in cultured, educated individuals of a civilized society,†he said.
"Allow me to reiterate, as far as I’m concerned, that this is a purely private matter, which refined and civilized individuals avoid elucidating on. Thus, it is my fervent hope that the public will understand my preference to keep silent on the matter."
“But my silence should not be misconstrued as my waiving my right to clear my name at the appropriate time.â€
Molo added Ortigas was “surprised†by his arrest but is “determined to fight this all way to the end.â€
Ortigas is a scion of the Ortigas clan, which owns large tracts of land in the east of Metro Manila. Ortigas & Co. is the developer of Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan City.
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