Following the money

Here we are, two weeks since Joel Escorial surrendered out of fear that he would be neutralized after his image caught on surveillance video was made public.

Escorial has confessed that he gunned down broadcaster Percy Lapid for a fee. Escorial has identified his accomplices and provided other precious information, except one critical detail: who’s the mastermind?

Even President Marcos has said he wants the brains behind the murder unmasked.

This task has become doubly harder following the death – apparently by unnatural causes, as even Marcos has openly suspected – of middleman Cristito “Jun” Villamor at the New Bilibid Prison on Oct. 18.

Escorial has said in his extrajudicial confession that Villamor served as liaison between their gang of hired guns and the person who put out the contract to kill Lapid.

Dead men tell no tales. But wait, there’s still another inmate, Christopher Bacoto, who allegedly served as paymaster in the contract to kill Lapid, real name Percival Mabasa. Escorial said he and his gangmates were paid a total of P550,000 through Bacoto, an inmate of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

We don’t know if Bacoto has talked, or if he has been uncooperative in the probe, or genuinely has no knowledge of who the brains might be.

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There is at least one other way of tracking down the mastermind: by identifying who deposited the P550,000, in several tranches, in the bank account of Escorial, who has turned over his passbook to probers.

Identifying the depositor/s will require lifting of bank secrecy laws. Probers can ask the Anti-Money Laundering Council to initiate the process, although the AMLC can do this motu proprio, according to former senator Franklin Drilon, who co-authored the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

Drilon said the AMLC, however, must first seek clearance from the Court of Appeals (CA) to compel a bank to disclose details about any account.

Oh no… with the glacial pace of justice in this country, Escorial himself and all other potential witnesses might also be dead of bangungot before the CA grants the approval.

But fear not; Drilon swears, based on previous cases, that the CA can act swiftly on such petitions from the AMLC.

On One News’ “The Chiefs” last Tuesday, Drilon explained that the required CA layer of approval was written into the law to prevent the abuse of the AMLC’s powers, for example against enemies of an incumbent administration. With murder among the predicate crimes covered by AMLA, Drilon told us that certainly, if the AMLC moved ASAP, the CA could give its green light long before Christmas.

Granting the appellate court the presumption of regularity, I guess it can give its nod to the AMLC as quickly as trial courts issue arrest warrants or hold-departure orders when the need arises. In urgent cases, I’ve known judges who were roused from sleep to issue the required court orders – and they obliged, in the interest of law enforcement.

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The good news, for those impatient to identify the mastermind, is that the Philippine National Police has asked the AMLC, and the council has initiated a “financial investigation” into Escorial’s bank record.

Col. Jean Fajardo, PNP spokesperson, told The Chiefs on Wednesday that probers were aware of the need for the AMLC to get CA approval to look into Escorial’s bank account.

The deposits in Escorial’s bank account came from different banks, Fajardo said.

It’s likely, of course, that the source of the funds is savvy enough about banking practices to use a fake identity, or several identities and account holders.

This effort to track down the mastermind will test the integrity of our banking system, which has been described as a “black hole” in international finance.

That description was given after the Bangladesh central bank lost $101 million deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to cyber thieves (believed to be North Korean) in February 2016. Cyber sleuths established that $81 million of the money was funneled to casinos in the Philippines and five accounts in Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. RCBC branch manager Maia Santos Deguito was convicted of money laundering in January 2019 and sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

Bangladesh has yet to fully recover its money. In the meantime, global dirty money watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has retained the Philippines in its gray list of jurisdictions subject to closer monitoring for money laundering.

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Recently, the AMLC signed a memorandum with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for closer cooperation in going after money launderers.

All along I thought the AMLC and BIR had long engaged in such cooperation. After all, US mobster Al Capone, who could not be pinned down for gangland killings and racketeering, was finally sent to prison 91 years ago this month – for tax evasion.

“They can’t collect legal taxes from illegal money,” Capone had famously said. He was sentenced to 11 years, fined $50,000 (equivalent to $976,342 today) and ordered to pay back taxes of $215,000 (over $3.72 million today). He went to Alcatraz (a real maximum security prison, unlike…) and died with his mind severely impaired by syphilis.

In our country, among the strategic deficiencies that the FATF wants addressed before the January 2023 deadline is risk mitigation associated with casino junkets. The FATF also wants enhanced access of law enforcement agencies to accurate and up-to-date information on beneficial ownership in banks. That part about lawmen’s access to beneficial ownership will be tested in the probe on Lapid’s murder.

Carlos Dominguez, when he was secretary of finance, pressed Congress to lift or at least ease bank secrecy laws, in keeping with global best practices.

Among the biggest holders of dirty money in this country, however, are certain members of Congress. Also, election campaign financing is among the most efficient laundromats – as large a black hole for dirty money as casinos. Sonny Dominguez – one of the most influential and respected officials in the previous administration – got nowhere in that particular crusade.

Perhaps following the money trail in Lapid’s murder could finally compel a relaxation of bank secrecy laws.