‘AMLC officials should resign or be fired’

MANILA, Philippines — Officials of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) should resign or be fired for their failure to stop apparent money-laundering activities, with millions coming into the country since last year, Sen. Richard Gordon said.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said Mel Georgie Racela, AMLC executive director, who was quizzed during the Senate public hearing on the council’s apparent inaction on the Bureau of Customs (BOC)’s report that 60 individuals brought in over $633 million, worth more than P32 billion, in cash from September 2019 to March this year, maintained that the “tsunami” of money entering the country was “in good faith.”

“They (AMLC) have not moved. Why? That’s (the) several million dollars question. I said in frustration, ‘These guys should resign or be removed by the President.’ So, I asked, ‘Does the President know what you’re doing?’ You’re doing nothing. Your excuse is very lame. Good faith? What good faith? That’s bad faith,” Gordon said in a mix of English and Filipino during an interview on The Chiefs aired on Cignal channel’s One News.

Gordon also showed several documents detailing the list of people who brought large amounts of money of different currencies into the country.

“This is (an) inordinate, unusual, extravagant, exorbitant amount of cash. Millions of millions flowing regular like a train. In a day, three times or six times – it’s really money laundering,” he stressed.

Despite the exposé on the apparent money laundering of foreign currencies, such activities continue, as Gordon revealed that the P310 million, or $6.130 million, came into the country just five days – and even hours – before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee’s Thursday public hearing on alleged money laundering, crimes and other nefarious activities associated with Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs) in the country.

“If we do not do our job… one clan, the Rodriguez family – and I don’t even know them, to put out $283 million,” said Gordon during the public hearing.

“Can you imagine that (in) the last three days they were still able to bring in the money? On Mar. 5 Bangkok, Hong Kong, $13 million. On Mar. 4, HK$9,800,000 from Singapore. Mar. 4, there were HK$700,000. On Mar. 3 there were HK$500,000. And Mar. 1, about HK$800,000. As of Wednesday night P310 million, or $6.130 million in five days,” said Gordon.

Gordon said the purpose of the investigation of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee is to determine whether there is a gap in the law.

Although seven members of the Rodriguez family were invited by the Senate committee, Gordon said they sent information that they have a prior commitment. He noted that they should appear on the next hearing set on Mar. 12.

In pursuing the issue of money laundering, Gordon said the government should do something about the concern.

“If you do not make sure that you do something about this there will be a negative impact on the reputation for integrity of currency handling. OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) will have a hard time. They will have a hard time to send their money here,” Gordon added.

Gordon said Racela should resign or explain why he should not be charged for dereliction of duty and ignorance of the law for not raising red flags on such activities.

“Racela should answer for that. And why is he lawyering for them (Rodriguez family)? He is practically lawyering for them. He said that was in good faith. They should enforce the law first and later say their defense, right?” he pointed out.

“They (AMLC) should have seized the money, and if they fail to get it, that’s a clear income for the government. In Russia, the euro generals were found carrying millions of dollars, the money was confiscated. The same happened in the United States,” he said.

“They (Rodriguez family) are sticking their tongue out as they put out this money and what do they use it for? That is high-stake and brazen money laundering. Can you imagine, Elizabeth Rodriguez came back and forth 56 times? No one doubts this? There are travels… made twice a day. Is that good faith?” Gordon pointed out.

He said Racela claimed the AMLC gets reports a month and a week after an incident happened. “Why the need to wait for one month and one week?”

Gordon said there is no loophole in the law, which clearly states that sources of the funds must be declared and not just with a simple “business, salary, investment, foreign exchange and lottery prize.” The senator said AMLC must demand proof of the sources like tickets or certifications.

“It is not a loophole. The loophole depends on the intelligence and the resolve of the chairman and director general of the AMLC. I am not gonna follow a stupid law. I know you are committing a crime and I know you are putting a lot of money, and the premise of the law is to prevent dirty money here. So, I will stop you,” he said.

“There is no need to amend the law to indicate that there is a need to specifically state the source of the money. You can do it right now through internal rules and regulations and it doesn’t need legislation,” Gordon added.

A predicate offense

Racela has strongly denied Gordon’s allegations that the AMLC has been remiss in taking action on the suspicious influx of money brought in by Filipino and Chinese couriers in the last seven months.

He said the primary regulators of the entry of foreign currencies are the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and BOC.

The AMLC only comes in after BOC submits the Foreign Currency and Other Foreign Exchange-Denominated Bearer Monetary Instruments Declaration Forms (foreign currency declaration forms) to the AMLC for analysis, he said.

The BOC submits these forms within 10 days following each month, as stipulated by the memorandum of agreement between the two agencies.

“We must also understand that in money laundering there are two crimes: the predicate offense and the money laundering offense. You can never commit money laundering without committing the predicate offense, the list of which is found in the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001, as amended,” Racela said in a statement emailed to The STAR.

He said the AMLC has been looking for the predicate offense since March 2019, when the cash dollars started to enter the country.

Racela said the AMLC has been collaborating with domestic and foreign counterparts to gather intelligence information.

“We have also alerted the BOC in August and the BSP in September, both in 2019. Needless to say, all these things would not have been acted upon by these agencies without the AMLC investigating in March and sounding the alarm in August,” Racela said.

He said the influx of cash dollars was already detected as early as September that made him suspect there was “massive collusion” among officials of concerned government agencies, and that was the reason why the entry of the currency continued.

The AMLC, the Department of Finance, the BSP or even the BOC – which first raised alarm on the matter – could have seized the dollars on mere suspicions and filed cases that would have forced the real owners of the money to come out. – With Paolo Romero