About P384,000 has been discovered among the personal belongings of Delegate [Eduardo] Quintero at his residence in Mayon, Sta. Ana, Manila by a raiding party of NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] men led by Arthur Figueras and Manila policemen. The raid started after 6:00 PM and ended at about 9:00 PM.
The complaint was filed by Congressman Artemio Mate at about 2:30 PM with the NBI Chief Col. Jolly Bugarin. He brought Cong. Mate to Judge (CFI [Court of First Instance]) of Manila Sala X who interrogated him and examined the case up to 6:00 PM.
Cong. Mate swore under oath that the wife of Delegate Quintero, Tarsila, had approached him in Tacloban saying that “if you can equal the offer of Pio Pedrosa and the Liberals of one million pesos, there will be no expose”; that the demand was repeated in Manila; that he overheard the negotiations for payment; that he knew and believed that the money was kept in the Quintero residence at Mayon, Sta. Ana, Manila, the hospital or the office.
So a search warrant was issued on a charge of extortion or threatening to libel. And the raid conducted.
The wife of Delegate Quintero, it was claimed by the household had just left for the airport to take the PAL [Philippine Airlines] plane for Leyte. When the airport was checked, it was found that no plane was bound for Leyte that evening. So, apparently she was avoiding the raiders. It is possible that she escaped with some of the money.
Official Gazette for May 31, 1972: THE PRESIDENT certified to Congress three vital measures for consideration during the current special session;
Certified by the President to both the Senate and the House were:
1) H. Bill No. 4317 seeking to revise the charter of the Foreign Trade Zone Authority.
2) H. Bill No. 4753 (S. 844) seeking to provide additional funding for the accelerated implementation of the Agrarian Reform Program.
3) H. Bill No. 2691 requiring the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office to grant blind sweepstakes ticket agents an additional five percent discount on ticket purchases, on top of the regular 22% discount.
In the course of his work on urgent state business, the President also signed into law H. Bill No. 4716 (S. 862) which is expected to boost the Philippine metals industry.
In signing the measure into law, the President said that the metals industry is “very vital to our economic development because it is a foundational industry and without it is impossible to plan for industrialization.”
The President expressed the hope that with the upgrading of technology, which will be developed by the proposed metals industry center, “we shall meet all challenges in economic development and overcome all our obstacles.”
Present at the signing of the new law are Senator Mamintal Tamano, Rep. Lucas Cauton of Ilocos Sur, and members of the MIDC staff and the private sector who are members of the advisory committee.
During the raid, the grandson of Quintero, a seventeen year old boy, refused to allow the raiders to take custody of the money kept in the second drawer of the aparador until a relative who was supposed to be a soldier arrived.
The Manila Times publisher [Joaquin] Chino Roces, of course, now will follow the line of those normally caught in flagrante delicto that the money was planted. In the first place, no rooms were entered except in the company of the household who opened the locked bedroom for the raiders.
And as Bong Lapira of Tri Media said in fairness to the NBI, the Tri Media was with them when the raid was conducted and no money could have been planted.
But the Manila Times is showing so much interest that there is ground for suspecting their involvement in the conspiracy to besmirch Imelda’s and my name.
The lucky discovery of the “lost” of Quintero is a boon to the Concon [Constitutional Convention] and the individual delegates pointed to as the givers.
But more than that it is a poetic justice.
Imelda is spotting (pinkish) as of 12:00 PM. She has just been given librium and phenergan to put her to sleep after an injection of progesterone.
We still hope to save the baby.