A high-ranking official of Liberal Party (LP) has denied allegations the administration party held a copy of the confidential Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report that found financial irregularities in the bank accounts of Vice President Jejomar Binay, his kin and alleged dummies.
Speaking at the sidelines of the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the House of Representatives and the National Housing Authority (NHA) on Thursday, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. denied the Binay camp’s allegations LP would use the AMLC report to destroy the Vice President’s reputation.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. INQUIRER PHOTO
He said the ruling party respected Republic Act No. 9160 or the AMLC Law which criminalized breaching the confidentiality of a bank inquiry by leaking the report to the media. Belmonte said the law deemed the report confidential until charges were filed in the court.
Joey Salgado, head for media affairs of the Office of the Vice President, said top LP leaders as early as last month obtained a copy of the AMLC report.
• Binay camp: LP has AMLC report
“I vehemently deny that. It is only the Court of Appeals (CA) that can authorize anybody to open the private bank accounts of any person. To insinuate that without a CA decision authorizing it is really to demean not only the CA but our whole legal system,” Belmonte, an LP vice chair, said.
“Our legal system protects all information unless there are charges filed and that the Court of Appeals agreed to the opening of the AMLC (report). Otherwise, that is an ironclad document,” he added.
Belmonte also hit the Vice President for refusing to face the charges against him, incidentally at the sidelines of the signing of a memorandum of agreement with the NHA, which Binay oversees, for the granting of land title to the 19-hectare Batasan property. Binay is the chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council of which the NHA is an attached agency.
“Hindi naman niya hinaharap (ang mga akusasyon). Sa Senate, sinabi niya pagdating sa husgado. Sa husgado, iba naman ang (sinasabi). Incidentally, I’m also thankful to the Vice President because he presided over the meeting that gave us this title,” Belmonte said, laughing.
The memorandum of agreement was signed granting the House of Representatives title to the 19-hectare Batasan property. House Secretary General Marilyn Barua-Yap called the signing of the memorandum of agreement historic because it was the first time the chamber would have title to the land in almost 40 years.
The AMLC obtained an order from the CA to freeze 242 bank, insurance and security accounts of Binay, his family and alleged dummies, totaling P16 billion. Binay’s frozen assets totaled P600 million.
The freeze order was also based on the findings that Binay’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth showed incomes from 2007 to 2013 of the Binays to be “disproportionate to the values, frequency and complexity of their banking transactions.”
The CA order stemmed from the Ombudsman’s investigation on the Makati Parking Building, allegedly overpriced by P1.3 billion, and the Makati Science High School.
The court took note of the AMLC findings that Gerardo Limlingan, Eduviges Baloloy and other alleged dummies withdrew funds from their bank accounts after the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the alleged anomaly.
The records of the Securities and Exchange Commission also showed probable links of entities, their directors and officers to the Vice President and his family, the court said.
The Ombudsman is investigating the allegations after a plunder complaint was filed by Renato Bondal and Nicholas Enciso VI against Binay, his son Makati Mayor Junjun and other city officials.
According to the plunder complaint, the construction of the building worth P1.56 billion was overpriced, citing National Statistics Office construction data which amount the average cost of the building that year at P245.6 million only.