However, the committee chaired by Sen. Teofisto L. Guingona III still has to decide whether or not to hold the hearing at the Veterans Medical Memorial Center in Quezon City to get the testimony of Erlinda Y. Ligot, wife of retired Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot, former AFP comptroller, on their supposed assets allegedly skimmed from AFP funds.

As this developed, Ligot’s brother-in-law vowed to appear before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Thursday.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada said Edgardo Yambao went to the Senate last Monday to inform the committee that he is not hiding.

Yambao added that his business has been affected by the Senate inquiry.

But Estrada was puzzled over Yambao’s claim: “Kung meron talaga siyang negosyo, bakit hindi niya dineclare sa income tax return niya at wala siyang Income Tax Return (ITR)? (If he is really running a business then why did he not declare this in his ITR and why does he have no ITR?).”

Estrada had asked the Guingona committee to conduct its hearing today at the hospital bed of Mrs. Ligot if she could not make it to the Senate building.

Guingona had said it might decide on whether to make its last committee hearing on the issue today or next week as both the Senate and the House of Representatives are scheduled to go on a 45-day recess starting March 26.

Mrs. Ligot had earlier notified the Senate that she was ill and would not attend the hearing.

In a notice to the committee by her lawyer, Mrs. Ligot said she was confined at the VMMC because of several ailments, including hypertension and stomach pain “and other aches,’’ and is scheduled for other medical tests.

Sen. Franklin M. Drilon, chairman of the Senate finance committee, had submitted documents showing that the Ligot couple, along with their children, relatives and friends, had joint deposits from 2001 to 2001 at different banks that at one time reached P740 million.

Aside from allegedly owning 10 houses in California, Mrs. Ligot had reportedly gone abroad 42 times, usually in the company of Mrs. Clarita Reyes, widow of retired AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes. Mrs. Reyes herself has gone abroad 48 times.

Estrada had asked Ligot whether his wife had acted as dummy for Mrs. Reyes in the purchase of a house in California but General Ligot refused to answer while invoking his right against self-incrimination.

Drilon showed in last week’s hearing a deed of sale and pictures of a P25 million condominium of the Ligots at the pricey McKinley Hills at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig showing that it was sold to Ligot’s brother-in-law, Edgardo Yambao, who is reportedly unemployed.

Mario Casayuran, Manila Bulletin