MANILA, Philippines — No active members of the military is involved in the smuggling of at least P18.7 billion dirty money in foreign currency into the Philippines, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said Wednesday.
The AFP issued the statement amid reports that some military men had acted as escorts to two syndicates that smuggled dirty money into the country.
According to AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, the AFP has already reached out to officials of the Bureau of Customs who claimed that the supposed military men that escorted the dirty money smugglers were retired members of the AFP and the Philippine National Police who are now working for private security agencies.
“Offhand, (based on their) their (BOC) raw information ‘yung sumasalubong na ito ay retired members of the PNP and AFP that are now under the employ of security agencies. So malinaw po ‘yan,” Arevalo said at the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum in Malate, Manila.
“What we can assure our people, wala pong miyembro ng Armed Forces of the Philippines na bahagi nito at magiging bahagi nito. Hindi po natin sasayangin lahat yan, ang tiwala ng ating taumbayan,” he added.
Arevalo also said that military men who will be proven involved in the illicit activity through the AFP’s “further and deeper” investigation will face the “weight of all our books, our regulation, and the military justice system.”
Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero earlier reported that two suspected syndicates brought into the Philippines about P18.7 billion in foreign dirty money that Senator Richard Gordon had flagged as possibly being used in criminal activities in the country.
According to Guerrero, who is also a former AFP chief, one of the groups was known as “Rodriguez” while the other was “Chinese.”
President Rodrigo Duterte has already ordered an investigation into the reported entry of dirty money in the Philippines.