Andres “Andy” D. Bautista is the chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Philippines.
He was prominently in the news in August 2017 after his wife Tisha Cruz came forward with her suspicions that he had accumulated ill-gotten wealth through corruption. She presented the media with evidence that included numerous bank passbooks that could put his assets at approximately 1 billion pesos.
Earlier this year, criminal prosecution of Chair Andy Bau had been recommended in certain circles because of the so-called COMELEAK, a scandal in which the voter registration information of practically every Filipino citizen of voting age was leaked by hackers.
Malaking karangalan ang ma-block ni @ChairAndyBau#AndyBautista #AndresBautista
🇵🇭 #14Tisha #TeamPatricia 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/nPTdqL6w9p
— Tagalog Lang (@TagalogLang) August 11, 2017
Juan Andres Donato Bautista is an alumnus of Ateneo de Manila University (he graduated top of his class and was managing editor of the Ateneo Law Review). He received a master’s degree from Harvard University, where he was president of the law student council. Bautista was hired right out of graduate school in 1993 by a top law firm in New York, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. He moved to the firm’s Hong Kong office in 1996.
In the past, he has concurrently served as CEO of the Kuok Group and dean of the Far Eastern University Institute of Law. Before becoming COMELEC chairman, Andy Baustista was more known for serving as the head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) from 2010 to 2015; it is quasi-judicial agency created by Pres. Corazon Aquino to recover ill-gotten wealth accumulated during the Marcos regime.
His wife Patricia stated in her August 2017 press conference that although her husband is extremely well-qualified in terms of professional credentials, he should be barred from government service due to his anomalous accumulation of wealth, which could only have come from corrupt practices. A few days earlier, on August 1st, she had given an affidavit to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) detailing what she knows.
In the hours soon after, Andy Bautista characterized his wife’s allegations as a money play and extortion.
Andres Bautista is now thought to be the subject of a blind item published in the online tabloid Abante by Arnold Clavio on March 22, 2017. In that column, Clavio referred to a public official as “Angry Bird” and foretold of the subsequent disclosures. Clavio also explained how the wife came to find out about her husband’s hidden financial wealth. The story involved a whip, and so the title of the piece was “40 Shades of B” (a reference to the sadomasochistic Fifty Shades of Grey).
In interviews on August 7th, Andres Bautista revealed that he and his wife had been having marital problems since 2013, and that she had taken on a lover. He also alleged that she withdrew a huge sum of money from their joint account in November 2016. Further, he said that he felt like he had been a victim of rape, after finding that his locked cabinets containing his financial documents, had been broken into.
Many, if not most, of the bank passbooks presented by his wife to the media were of accounts with the Luzon Development Bank, one of whose principals is Rene Limcaoco, a DOTC undersecretary during Liberal Party rule and Bautista’s fellow Atenean.
Nasa balita si Juan Andres Donato Bautista nang humarap sa media ang kanyang maybahay dala ang ebidensya na maaaring may kinurakot na pera ang asawa habang ito’y nanunungkulan bilang tagapangasiwa ng COMELEC.
Date of Birth: March 28, 1964
Place of Birth: Quezon City, Philippines
Bar Exam Grade: 86.90 percent
XMA Corp., a holding company in Quezon City that his family acquired in 2007, with a capital stock of ₱1.6 million
The company’s 2011 papers at the Securities and Exchange Commission show XMA is a business that acquires, purchases, and sells, and leases real estate properties.
The incorporators and directors are Andres S. Bautista, Angeles D. Bautista, Faustina D. Bautista, and Juan Andres D. Bautista, and Patricia C. Bautista. The COMELEC chief also sits as the company’s treasurer or chief financial officer.
