The alleged “dirty” cash brought into the Philippines has reached more than US$633 million or some P32 billion in a span of six months.
Senator Richard Gordon bared this as he started the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s legislative probe on the alleged money laundering schemes related to the Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs).
Citing information gathered by his office, Gordon said the new total of foreign currencies that came into the country from September, 2019 to March 5, 2020 now amounts to $633,028,880.08.
He later clarified that the amount did not include other currencies, such as Japanese yen and Hong Kong dollars.
The new figures was more than the $447 million that he revealed during his privilege speech the other day, and more than double the amount that the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has recorded.
Asked by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, AMLC executive director Atty. Mel Georgie Racela said cash declarations, according to their data, amounted to at least US$336 million, excluding other foreign currencies.
He said the AMLC has yet to obtain from the Bureau of Customs (BoC) the amount of the declarations for the first two months of 2020.
Syndicates
Gordon said 60 individuals were involved in the entry of the $633 million to the country. He claimed that at least five organized syndicates brought it, including an alleged “Rodriguez family” whose cash mostly came from Hong Kong and Singapore.
One “Elizabeth Rodriguez”, he cited for instance, managed to carry into the Philippines a total of $42 million within 58 successive transactions between September last year to February 27, 2020; while “John Joshua Rodriguez” brought some $36 million in 47 transactions; and another “Janet Rodriguez” who brought a total of $28 million in transactions within the same period.
Gordon said the “suspicious” transactions should have alerted the AMLC to move for the apprehension of these individuals if they failed to justify their sources.
Racela, however, said that they cannot yet consider this as money laundering as they have to establish first from their counterparts abroad that the individuals were involved in illegal activities.
Racela said that according to the declaration forms, the top sources of the funds were: business, forex, savings, casino, and salary.
“We cannot establish money laundering as long as we don’t establish the unlawful activity,” he told senators.
Gordon and Drilon disagreed with Racela, saying the country’s anti-money laundering law provides authority and mechanisms for dealing with suspicious and unusual transactions. (Vanne Terrazola)
