Binay’s law firm belies Inquirer report on sending P100M to HK

Presidential candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

The law firm of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Thursday belied the banner story of the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the Anti-Money Laundering (AMLC) report that it sent more than P100 million to Hong Kong using the same remittance company involved in the alleged laundering of $81 million from the Bank of Bangladesh.

Binay’s law office, the law firm of Subido Pagente Certeza Mendoza and Binay (SPCMB), through lawyer Claro Certeza dismissed the AMLC report as a “pathetic attempt” to supposedly divert public attention to the alleged money laundering scheme being investigated by the Senate blue ribbon committee.

READ: Binay sent P100M to HK via Philrem

“Today’s screaming headline in the Philippine Daily Inquirer is but a pathetic attempt to divert and diminish public attention to the most embarrassing scandal of all—the inefficiency and ineptitude of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the present administration to prevent the US$81.0 million money laundering involving the foreign reserved funds of the government of Bangladesh,” Certeza said in a statement.

“By allowing itself to be used as a political tool to harass and persecute those opposing the current administration, the AMLC ignored its mandate to address the serious money laundering cases being brazenly committed by international crime syndicates in the Philippines,” he added.

Citing a 62-page AMLC report, the Inquirer on Thursday reported that Philrem Service Corp. facilitated the dispatch of various amounts to Citibank in Hong Kong for Three Star Phil, a firm in the British Virgin Islands that was allegedly an investor in a Binay dummy company, in October 2014.

The Senate on Tuesday heard testimony that Philrem had converted $81 million that computer hackers diverted from the Bangladesh central bank to the Philippines into pesos.

Certeza said the AMLC report manifested the agency’s “inefficiency and ineptitude” by failing to keep the confidentiality of all reports and proceedings under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, noting that a gag order was issued by a Manila regional trial court pending resolution of a civil forfeiture case.

“AMLC allowed the Philippine Daily Inquirer to print several articles involving its dubious report that is replete with lies, half-truths, misleading statements and allegations that have since been retracted by the AMLC,” the lawyer said.

However, Certeza denied the report, saying that no transactions involved Binay.

“However, notwithstanding said gag order and statutory rule on confidentiality, we can categorically state that NONE of the bank transactions mentioned in the libelous article of the Philippine Daily Inquirer involve the Vice President. The Vice President is but one of many other clients of the SPCMB law offices,” Certeza said.

“Moreover, the alleged transactions of the SPCMB law office are but parts of legitimate business activities duly reported to several government agencies where the services of the SPCMB law offices were engaged,” he added.

READ: UNA belies reports on Philrem, law firm

The AMLC report said Martin Subido, Binay’s partner in the law firm, opened a bank account at a Banco de Oro (BDO) branch with an initial deposit of $2,449,054.18, which came from BDO Account No. 1001140217126 of Daniel Subido, Martin’s brother. The report said there were big transactions in the SPCMB US dollar account.

The report added that accounts of Binay and his alleged dummies disbursed amounts to Philrem’s account with BDO and that SPCMB made two telegraphic transfers to Three Star Capital Limited in Hong Kong.

Citing “undisputed facts,” Certeza said the Inquirer’s “screaming headlines” about the AMLC report was part of a “smear campaign” and “malicious retaliation against Binay and his law firm. “While this may still be an objective of the malicious article and extra-ordinary coverage being given to it by other media outfits, there appears to be a more sinister motive at play…. a possible [cover-up] to hide a scandal so big that it affects those in the current administration and its not so secret candidate,” he said.

The lawyer alleged that an AMLC member and Senate President Franklin Drilon were connected to the law firm representing the AMLC chairman in the P200-million libel case filed by Binay and the same law firm representing the bank and its officials at the center of the $81-million money laundering.

“Clearly, the article of the Philippine Daily Inquirer resurrecting issues based allegedly on a purported AMLC report, which may have been issued more than five (5) months ago and the subject of the gag order, is a desperate attempt to mislead the public,” Certeza said.

“Knowing the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s utter contempt for and its role in the demolition by public perception of Vice President Binay, this is not surprising anymore. Sadly, the newspaper has adopted the policy of sensationalism at the expense of truth,” he added.

Casting doubt on the existence of the said report, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) president Tobias “Toby” Tiangco said there was not enough basis to claim that Binay was involved in the transactions and urged AMLC authorities to step forward and confirm the veracity of the report.

“Unang-una, masyado nang pilit yang istorya na iyan. Kasi yung SPCMB, madami namang kliyente yung law firm na iyan so hindi natin alam kung kanino yung pondo na inilipat nila supposedly. Number two, yung money changer, I would assume marami ring kliyente iyan. So hindi naman pu-pwedeng because of those things ay sasabihin na nating e konektado iyan,” Tiangco told reporters at the Coconut Palace.

(First of all, that story has been used before. SPCMB has many clients so we wouldn’t know who owns the fund that law firm is supposedly transferring. Second, I would assume that the money changer [company] also has many clients. So it wouldn’t be appropriate to assume that these are connected because of those things.)

“Pangalawang pagkakataon na rin ito na nangyari at hinihingi ko ulit yung AMLC to confirm or deny if there is such a report at sabihin kung totoo yung sinasabi nung dyaryo. So sa tingin ko para matapos na ang lahat ng ito, ang pinakamabuti magsalita yung AMLC,” he added.

(This is the second time it happened that’s why I’m requesting the AMLC to confirm or deny if there is such a report and it should say whether the newspaper story is true. So I think, to put an end to this, AMLC should speak up [on the matter].)

The AMLC report said Binay received billions of pesos in kickbacks through dummies when he was still Makati mayor from various infrastructure projects, notably the Makati City Hall Building II and the Makati City Science High School building. Part of that money allegedly went to the Hong Kong bank. RAM

READ: What went before: Makati City Hall Building II probe