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Senator ProTempore Jinggoy Estrada filed a motion to cite the Ligot couple in contempt for refusing to answer the senator’s queries during the Senate hearing on Monday.  This was immediately seconded by Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee.

For lack of quorum, however, the committee failed to vote on the motion. The Senate will hold a caucus later in the afternoon to determine if they will hold in contempt former military budget official Lt. Gen Jacinto Ligot and his wife Erlinda for refusing to answer the senators’ queries during the hearing.

Senator Francis Escudero asked the committee to give the Ligot couple five minutes to confer with their counsel, lawyer Raffy Zialcita, to advise them not to invoke the right against self incrimination in all the questions asked by the senators.

The Senate failed to get any information from Mrs. Ligot who repeated refused to answer questions and often invoked her right against self-incrimination. At one point, she said she would even be willing to join her husband in jail despite several promptings from Estrada that she answer queries regarding their alleged properties here and abroad, as well as her many bank accounts and travels to different countries. For security reasons, she also did not answer the question on where they are staying as they were receiving death threats.

Drilon believed Mrs. Ligot’s insistence on her right against self incriminate was not correct but still he did not push his questions. “I believe such right was not properly invoked. Mrs. Ligot has properties far in excess of the income of Mr. Ligot. There were deposits in your name, P700 million and P 40 million that went through your account. I’m as frustrated as anyone but we have enough documents on our file,” he said.

Blue Ribbon committee chairman Teofisto Guingona III agreed with Drilon. “The chair agrees that the right to self incrimination cannot be used in such occasions since it is clearly established that there is high degree of unexplained wealth,” Guingona said.

Mrs. Ligot answered questions on her age, her college degree, her job, her children, their ages, the date of their marriage. But when Estrada proceeded to ask Mrs. Ligot if she had the chance to go to the United States, the she again started to invoke her right against self incrimination.

She refused to answer questions on the supposed properties in Cabernet and Stanton, California. She also refused to confirm that it was her signature that appeared in the documents on the two properties. She also refused to give a specimen signature to compare with the one on the documents.