Tens of millions of pesos were withdrawn in cash in multiple single transactions from banks in 2007-2009. Under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), banks have mandatory obligations to report these transactions to the AMLA council, regardless of the persons/corporations involved. The AMLA law requires banks, under pain of criminal liability, to automatically report to the AMLA council single bank transactions amounting to more than the equivalent of US$10,000.00. The obligation to report is mandatory even if the bank account owner is a billionaire or a multinational company. The inaction of the AMLA council in 2007-2009 to investigate and obtain freeze orders on the suspicious bank accounts facilitated the laundering of billions of pork barrel funds. It is the same inaction by the AMLA council with respect to the Ampatuan funds. The AMLA officers during the 2007-2009 period must be held criminally accountable for facilitating the plunder of public funds. Their belated filing of freeze orders now, 4 years after the laundering of the funds happened, is downright insulting. Why only now when they held the evidence in their hands as early as 4 years ago. If not for the overwhelming public outrage, they would have kept their criminally complicit silence on the plunder of public funds. If the Ombudsman and the present AMLA council were able to jointly and pro-actively cooperate during the Corona impeachment trial, they must likewise cooperate now by investigating and freezing the bank accounts of Congressmen and Senators whose bank records show suspicious money laundering transactions, and thereafter criminally prosecute them all for plunder.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 23:47:31 +0000
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