Aim
for what can be documented
The challenge in investigating political corruption is to find a paper
trail and to get sources to reveal information, especially when the
targets of the investigation are powerful. The PCIJ knew that it had
to find documents to back up its reports. Its investigation, therefore,
was determined by what could be documented. It was difficult to document
deal making and payoffs. It was easier at that time to document the
fruits of the dealmaking. This was the reason the PCIJ decided to
find out how Estrada spent his money, rather than how he got it.
Devise a research strategy
It is essential at the onset to conceptualize a strategy for the
research. The strategy should include a list of the information
needed and the documents and sources that can provide such information.
Investigators should know what they are looking for. For the PCIJ,
this requirement also entailed rereading the law on assets and conflicts
of interest.
The main strategy at the initial stage of the investigation was
to find out whether the President's assets exceeded what he had
declared in his statement of assets, making him liable for accumulating
unexplained or ill-gotten wealth. As shown in the previous chapter,
an asset check is often one of the simplest ways to document corruption.
To do this, we needed to retrieve Estrada's statements of assets
since 1987. Then we would have to do a systematic search of his
assets and see whether his statements contained major omissions.
Be patient with documents
The search for statements of assets was easy. The PCIJ had several
of these already on file. Those when Estrada was a senator were
still on file at the Senate, and those he filed as president were
obtained from the Office of the Executive Secretary in Malacañang.
The search for the other assets was more tedious. The PCIJ began
with corporate records and did a systematic search of companies
in which Estrada and various family members were registered as board
members or incorporators.
The search began at a computer terminal at the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), where members of the public can key in a name
and find out what companies list it as an incorporator or a board
member. PCIJ researchers keyed in Estrada's name and those of his
wife, various mistresses, and children. More than 100 companies
were found, but the list was trimmed down to take out companies
that listed people who had the same name but were not Estrada family
members.
The next step was to retrieve the registration records of the companies
in the trimmed down list. This entailed queueing at the SEC for
five to six hours to get a maximum of three records a day. The process
took about three months. By the end of that period, the PCIJ had
a list of 66 companies in which Estrada or his family held shares.
The search had paid off as Estrada declared less than a dozen companies
in his statement of assets.
