MANILA - Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman TG Guingona saw inconsistencies in the statements of Salud Bautista and Michael Bautista of PhilRem Service Corp. (Philrem) during the Senate inquiry Tuesday on the money laundering scandal.

Speaking to ANC, Guingona said the statements of both Salud and Michael contradict their earlier statements.

"One thing is consistent: they are consistently inconsistent. They contradict themselves today. In the previous hearings, they did say everything was delivered to Solaire. Today, they're saying not everything was delivered to Solaire. Before they said, everything, all P600 million and $18 million were delivered to Solaire, to Mr. Weikang Xu. Now they are saying not everything was delivered to Solaire, only a portion of it," he said.

"These are very, very disturbing, and very, very inconsistent statements, which really damage their credibility. You don't have to be a lawyer, anybody, just use common sense, you can tell it really damages their credibility," Guingona added.

The senator was referring to an earlier statement made by Salud Bautista that she delivered the P600 million and $18 million directly to Weikang Xu. She later said that she delivered part of the money, with a messenger delivering the remaining amount.

Casino junket operator Kim Wong and the Philrem president gave conflicting statements on Tuesday when the Senate questioned them over the cash deliveries involved in an $81-million laundering heist.

Philrem president Salud Bautista and treasurer Michael "Concon" Bautista, and Wong contradicted each other about the amounts involved in the transactions, the presence of Wong during the deliveries, and the whereabouts of $17 million.

"It's boiling down to Philrem versus Kim Wong, and somebody's lying through their teeth. So, in the next few hearings, we hope to unearth who the liar is, because the liar is the one keeping the $17 million," Guingona said.

Philrem officers, on the other hand, maintained that they do not have $17 million from the illegal funds that they converted to pesos, contrary to Wong's claim that the amount is with them.

"We've always accepted the fact that this transaction was a mistake. And we will take the hits because we have to help solve this problem for everybody. But we are not keeping money. There is no money with us," Concon Bautista said.

Philrem officers clarified that they handed over $30 million in cash--in the amounts of P600 million and $18 million--to a certain Weikang Xu, a business associate of Wong.

Both Wong and Xu are facing money laundering charges filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Guingona, likewise, lauded Wong's goodwill in returning the money, adding that this, however, does not mean that the latter is off the hook.

"It's certainly laudable that he's (Wong) showing very much goodwill in returning the money, but we still have to unearth the truth as to who is really telling the truth as to this issue," Guingona said.

Deguito as state witness?

Meanwhile, Guingona said they have yet to receive any information regarding Deguito's intent to become a state witness in the case.

"The last time we asked her that, she said that she'd rather not be a state witness, she's rather do it on her own, and do it on her own and not as a state witness. I don't know, maybe she's changing her mind, I don't know where you got that, but that's certainly something new," he said.

Deguito on Tuesday maintained her innocence in the $81-million heist involving stolen funds from the Bangladesh central bank.

In a statement read during the fourth Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, Deguito claimed that she became an ''unwitting scapegoat'' in the elaborate plan to steal millions of dollars from the account of Bangladesh Bank in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

READ: RCBC agrees to open 4 accounts linked to $81-M heist