FORMER Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto R. Yasay, Jr. got out of jail after posting a P240,000 bail over charges that he violated banking laws.

A Manila trial court has set his arraignment for Sept. 20.

Mr. Yasay, whom police arrested on Thursday, was brought to the hospital for high blood pressure hours after his arrest, according to his social media post. “Now the fight for justice and to prove my innocence begins,” he added.

Mr. Yasay, who briefly served as President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s top diplomat before lawmakers rejected his appointment in 2017, on Thursday posted a photo secretly taken by his wife while he was being processed for mugshots by Manila police.

The court ordered his arrest on charges that he conspired with five other officials of the shuttered Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank to get an anomalous loan worth P350 million for a company, according to a copy of a police report. They allegedly failed to report the loan to the central bank.

Mr. Yasay had said he would not post bail until he was brought to the judge where he would question “this abuse of process and travesty of justice.”

Mr. Yasay headed the Securities and Exchange Commission under then President Fidel V. Ramos. He ran for vice president in 2010 and lost. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

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