Top officials of the Liberal Party (LP) have allegedly obtained copies of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report on Vice President Jejomar Binay’s bank accounts, which will be used against him, Binay’s camp said on Tuesday.
Joey Salgado, head for media affairs of the Office of the Vice President, said they received reliable information that as early as last month, the AMLC report was already obtained by top LP leaders.
“We have been asked to comment on a report that a freeze order has allegedly been issued on bank accounts supposedly identified with Vice President Binay and members of his family based on the recommendation of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC),” Salgado said in a statement.
“We cannot confirm this report. We do not know if such an order has been issued by the Court of Appeals. Court proceedings of this nature are deemed highly confidential and any party who discloses is subject to contempt.”
“(But) we have received reports that as early as last month, key personalities of the LP already got copies of the AMLC report, which is supposed to be confidential. The LP has its fingerprints all over the AMLC probe. This is apparently part of their game plan,” he said.
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Salgado pointed out that such report is deemed classified to protect the name and reputation of concerned parties. But he said he would not be surprised if such freeze order and the AMLC report have already been leaked to the media by the Vice President’s political opponents.
“This is after all a perception game that they are playing. Their intention is to taint the good name of Vice President Binay,” he said.
Salgado said they would not also be surprised if the AMLC was involved in the conspiracy to malign Binay and his family. He noted that “LP has been “hell-bent” on damaging the Vice President’s reputation, since the latter declared his intention to run for president in 2016.
“The Liberal Party has been obsessed with attacking the Vice President. The LP has been aggressively harnessing government resources and agencies against the Vice President and his family ever since he declared his intention to run for President in 2016. The AMLC is apparently one of these agencies,” he said.
He then lamented what he described as LP’s “abuse” of the Anti-Money Laundering Act for political gains.
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“What is unfortunate is that the intent of the Anti-Money Laundering Act has been subverted by politics. The Act was signed into law to prevent the use of the Philippines as a haven for laundering money from drugs, terrorism and other unlawful acts. Today, it is a tool to harass and taint the reputation of political enemies of the LP,” he said.
“We can expect the LP and their allies to misrepresent the Vice President’s bank accounts, which are all reflected and reported in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) and Statement of Election Expenses.”
“But what’s worst is that even the bank accounts of his friends and other persons mentioned in the Senate hearings will most likely be falsely represented as “dummy” accounts,” he further said.
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The Vice President, he said, is nevertheless ready to face any issue that would be hurled against him and is prepared to present evidence to disprove them.
“The Vice President is prepared to face this issue. The records and documents will prove that the AMLC report – which will serve as the basis for a freeze order – is baseless,” said Salgado.
“This is not about justice or corruption. It is such a hollow and hypocritical claim when LP members have been linked to high-profile acts of corruption but remain untouched by the Ombudsman and other investigative agencies.
“This is all about the 2016 presidential election. This is all about unleashing the agencies of government to harass and malign the Vice President in the hope- however dim – that the LP’s presumptive candidate will benefit from the demolition campaign,” he added, apparently referring to Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, who is being pushed by LP to be its standard-bearer in 2016. IDL