Window
Legislative probes launched by either the Senate or House of Representatives used to send shivers on personalities involved in controversies and suspected criminal activities but not anymore.
This was evident in the Senate hearing conducted by the Blue Ribbon committee chaired by Senator Teofisto TG Guingona the other day after he summoned certain personalities in connection with the cyber heist involving the Bangladesh Bank’s reserves deposited with the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Some US $80 million ended up in the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation through its Jupiter Makati City branch which hosted four fictitious accounts that held the stolen BB funds. The US$80 million was later consolidated in an account under the name of businessman William Go, who has denied any involvement in the digital thievery. The stolen funds later found its way into a remittance agency which, upon instructions of RCBC Jupiter Makati branch manager, disbursed the monies to a Chinese junket tour operator who services high rollers in Manila casinos.
When Sen. Guingona tried to grill RCBC CEO Lorenzo Tan and Makati branch manager Maia Santos Deguito, the two bank officials merely invoked the Bank Secrecy Law which purportedly prohibits them from divulging bank information without proper authorization.
Senators TG Guingona and Serge Osmeña could have spent the whole day hectoring the witnesses but those bank officials who were in the company of their respective lawyers apparently knew how the game was played – just invoke the right to self-incrimination and seek shelter in the Bank Secrecy Law.
The sad part is that instead of the Senate extracting information from RCBC officials but ended with nada, they even took advantage of the legislative hearing which was covered live by the news channel ANC, to air their prepared and self-serving statements.
What shameless sponging of taxpayers’ money.
Senate Minority Floor Leader Juan Ponce Enrile has clearly sensed the futility of the proceedings when he asked committee chairman TG Guingona about the objective of the probe because as far as Enrile is concerned, if the goal is to include casinos in the coverage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act or RA 9160 as amended, this concern was already taken up in 2013 when the Senate introduced and actually passed an amendment to put casinos under the jurisdiction of the AMLC.
According to Enrile, the Senate version was killed by the House of Representatives in the bicameral conference, implying that the Senate contingent succumbed to the pressure of the Lower Chamber at that time. I suspect Enrile wanted to say the Senate hearing was actually in aid of TG Guingona’s re-election because he ranked poorly in popularity surveys but the country’s most senior legislator opted not to insult his peer.
Instead, the opposition lawmaker said before the hearing that the AMLA amendment to place casinos under the coverage of the AMLA was “killed” by congressmen belonging to the Liberal Party. The cameras caught Guingona and Serge Osmeña as though wanting to disprove Enrile but decided against it.
Senator Ralph Recto raised the conspiracy angle in the Bangladesh Bank heist case because he thinks it is important to know why the hackers chose RCBC and Jupiter Makati branch of all other banks in the country.
Sen. Recto has a point, but I believe the crux of the matter is not just the crack in the banking industry, in this case the alleged conspiracy of RCBC officials with money launderers but more importantly, the existence of money laundering syndicates operating in Philippine casinos.
Up until Tuesday, the Philippine National Police has not yet initiated any investigation on the alleged money laundering activities in the casino where the junket tour operator was purportedly servicing high rollers.
In fact, the AMLC Executive Director was saying that after the stolen funds got out of the banking system, it was already beyond their jurisdiction. She has a point because the money trail pointed to the Chinese junket tour operator and since casinos are not under the AMLC jurisdiction, the case should be investigated by the police.
In other words, the restrictions placed in the AMLA are being used by money launderers operating in PH casinos.
In November 2012, I wrote about Manila emerging as the New Macau or gambling haven of Asia and expected to lure foreign tourist and high rollers.
Entertainment City Manila, also known as Pagcor City Manila operates an 8-square kilometer reclaimed lot of Manila Bay — a gambling and resort complex initiated by Pagcor in 2007 through investments from private companies and gambling moguls based in Hongkong, Singapore, Australia and US.
I have always maintained that gambling casinos always raise the red flag because gambling has been associated with organized crime, increase in pathological gamblers, not to mention the rise of transnational crimes like money laundering.
I like to end this piece by sharing some updates from a Bangladeshi news organization which said Dhaka government is receiving advice from the World Bank and US federal agencies are poised to dig deeper into the digital heist and money laundering scandal.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
