The Court of Appeals has directed several banks to temporarily freeze the accounts and assets of the alleged leaders of a car theft syndicate believed to be behind the murders of car dealers Venson Evangelista and Emerson Lozano.
The court issued the 20-day freeze order on bank accounts registered under the names of the brothers Roger and Raymond Dominguez, their parents Betty and Leopoldo, and former starlet Katrina Paula (Angeline Samonte-Yap in real life).
The court also temporarily prohibited transactions on the accounts of Vicenta Dominguez, Athens Samonte-Yap and Jayson Miranda.
The court released the resolution after finding a petition filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) seeking to prevent the Dominguezes from withdrawing money from the subject banks to be “sufficient in form.”
“After a careful and judicious examination, the petition for the issuance of a freeze order is justified by a finding here of probable cause,” the court said in a 13-page resolution dated June 6.
Associate Justices Remedios Salazar-Fernando and Celia Librea-Leagogo concurred with the ruling written by Associate Justice Michael Elbinias.
“(I)mmediately upon receipt of this freeze order, (the banks) are directed to freeze the subject bank accounts and to furnish the owners and/or holders of such bank accounts, deposits and all related web of accounts and deposits with a copy of the notice of the freeze order,” the resolution added.
The court also instructed the banks to submit their compliance report to the appellate court’s second division and the AMLC within 24 hours after receiving a copy of the resolution.
Transactions prohibited
In addition to the Dominguez brothers’ accounts, the freeze order covered bank deposits under the name of Enrique Carl G. Lopez, Megalizer Agri Products Inc., Benigno Buzon Victorino and Myvanwy Magsino.
The AMLC did not disclose how much money the said personalities maintained in several accounts in Banco De Oro Unibank, Metrobank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Development Bank of the Philippines and Planters Development Bank.
The AMLC’s petition stemmed from the revelations made by confessed gang members Alfred Mendiola and Ferdinand Parolan to the police on Jan. 11.
Mother, father
In asking for the freeze order, the council also cited reports linking Raymond, Roger and other family members to the car theft activities.
The AMLC said that if the accounts were not “frozen and placed under the custody of the law, there is imminent certainty that the funds contained in the bank accounts … will be withdrawn, removed, transferred, concealed or otherwise disposed of and out of reach of the law enforcers.”
The council said Mendiola and Parolan claimed that “Mommy Betty” Dominguez, the suspects’ mother, had a hand in the operations of the Dominguez carnapping group.
Roger and Raymond’s father, Leopoldo, was also included in the criminal complaints against his sons in connection with the death of a certain Jose Edwin de Guzman.
The Dominguez brothers are facing a string of estafa, car theft, homicide, robbery and hijacking cases in Malolos City, Bulacan, and in Angeles City, Pampanga, according to the AMLC.