CA extends freeze order on Bolante accounts in fertilizer scam

MANILA, Philippines – Acting on a request by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), the Court of Appeals has extended the freeze order on 32 accounts of former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante which are believed to have contained the P728 million funds from the so-called fertilizer scam.

In the same 30-page decision penned by Associate Justice Pampio Abarintos, the CA’s former First Division also removed from the coverage of the freeze order more than 30 other accounts in various banks and institutions after these have been verified to be “cancelled, written off, closed or expired.”

Last July 1, the appellate court issued a 20-day freeze order on 70 various accounts under the name of Bolante and several other individuals and entities believed involved in the fertilizer scam. The freeze order was later extended to Aug. 19, 2008.

With the extension, the freeze order on the suspected accounts will take effect until Dec. 20, 2008.

“The Court believes that probable cause exists that these hundreds of millions of pesos were the money reportedly to have been released to the Department of Agriculture upon the request of then Undersecretary Bolante allegedly to fund the government’s Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Program to help alleviate the plight of Filipino farmers all over the country,” the CA said in its decision.

According to the AMLC, there is a need to extend the freeze order to give it more time to conduct and finish an exhaustive and comprehensive financial investigation of the accounts and determine the extent of criminal activity of the persons involved without the possible dissipation of funds.

The extended freeze order now covers the accounts and insurance policies at the Banco de Oro Universal Bank, Citibank, N.A., East-West Bank, Maybank Phils. Inc., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Philippine National Bank, Insular Life Assurance Co., Pru Life Insurance Corp. of UK, Manufacturers Life Insurance Co., BPI/MS Insurance Corp., Performance Foreign Exchange Corp., Prudential Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Union Bank of the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and Standard Chartered Bank.

Aside from Bolante, the AMLC identified the other holders of these various accounts as Molugan Foundation, Alliance for the Conservation of the Environment of Pangasinan, Inc., Sta. Lucia Education Association of Bulacan, Inc., Livelihood Corp. (Livecor), Ariel C. Panganiban, spouses Samuel and Katherine Samuel Bombeo.

Based on the initial investigation conducted by the Secretariat’s Compliance and Investigation Staff of the AMLC, Livecor transferred in 2004 huge sums of money to the accounts of Molugan on four separate occasions in the total amount of P172.6 million and the AGS in the amount of P40 million.

Molugan then transferred P38 million to AGS in April 2004 with AGS returning the favor by transferring the same amount to Molugan on exactly the same day.

According to the AMLC, the transactions “have no underlying legal or trade obligation, purpose or economic justification.”

It added that the transactions were not commensurate with the business capacity of Molugan and AGS, since they were lowly capitalized at only P50,000 each.

At the time of the transactions, Bolante was the acting chairman of Livecor while Samuel Bombeo was the president, secretary, treasurer and the sole signatory for the checking account of Molugan. Bombeo together with Panganiban were the signatories for the account of AGS.

Bolante fled the country at the height of the Senate’s investigation into the alleged fertilizer scam. He was later arrested in Los Angeles on July 7, 2006 after airport authorities found him in possession of a revoked US visa.

The visa was revoked on the request of the Philippine Senate after investigation linked him to the fund scam. He later applied for political asylum in the US citing threats to his life in the Philippines. – Mike Frialde