Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has accused the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of giving him the runaround in his department’s efforts to build a case against Sen. Leila de Lima and her alleged associates in the drug protection racket inside New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
Aguirre said that last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested a peek at certain bank records that would show the financial transactions between convicted drug lords and their drug coddlers allegedly led by De Lima.
Aguirre said he expected the AMLC to submit the requested bank records last week to give government lawyers enough time to sift through the documents in preparation for the Sept. 20 House probe on the proliferation of drugs at NBP on the watch of then Justice Secretary De Lima.
“I expected to get it as early as last week but they told me it was not easy to get the records out because it was not covered by the (memorandum of agreement, or MOA) between the DOJ and AMLC. They wanted us to write (a letter of request) again but this time, through the (National Bureau of Investigation), because they claimed that they had a much broader MOA with NBI,” Aguirre said.
The official said he was surprised at the AMLC dragging its foot on the case, when its primary responsibility, was going after dirty money being laundered by drug lords operating inside the maximum security prison.
Fast and thorough
“I don’t see anything bad if they just give us the records and let us take a peek. I recall there was no issue when the AMLC looked into the records of former Vice President Jejomar Binay. That was really fast and thorough,” Aguirre said.
The Inquirer tried to get the side of the AMLC through its chair, Amando Tetangco Jr., but being overseas, he had yet to reply to the text message.
Aguirre said he was hopeful that the AMLC would produce the bank records before Tuesday’s hearings. “We have identified several bank accounts that were used by the drug lords to exchange funds with their protectors. It involves billions of pesos,” he said.
The official said that building a case against De Lima was proving to be more difficult than expected not only because of uncooperative agencies like the AMLC, but also because of efforts by some sectors to sabotage their case.
He cited the case of Jonathan Caranto, a relative of De Lima’s former driver-bodyguard and alleged lover Ronnie Palisoc Dayan who, he said, gave the DOJ fake bank receipts indicating a total of P24 million in deposits made to De Lima.
Part of matrix?
“They thought I’d be happy to just grab (them) and claim that I have direct evidence linking De Lima (to) drug money. They wanted to destroy our credibility. But I’m no fool, I’ve been a lawyer for 44 years,” he added.
Aguirre said he expected the House to subpoena Caranto and Dayan to shed light on De Lima’s alleged role in the rise of the drug trade inside NBP during the previous administration. “They are part of the matrix presented by President Duterte. They should be there,” he said.
Earlier, Caranto denied having a BDO account that reportedly contained P24 million in drug money. He said he personally went to a branch of the bank in Caloocan to verify the existence of the account and was told that the account exists, but that it was not in his name. It was also at a different BDO branch and the Caloocan branch had no access to it, he was told.
Lie detector
The DOJ administrative assistant said he only heard on the radio about his name being in the matrix and that he talked with Aguirre about it after consulting a lawyer and several friends at the DOJ.
He said Aguirre asked him about the bank accounts and the deposit slip, and asked if he was willing to go to the NBI to clear his name, to which he readily agreed.
Aside from executing an affidavit, Caranto also underwent a polygraph or a lie detector test which he passed, according to the NBI.
Aguirre had previously accused “people behind De Lima” of spreading disinformation, when a former De Lima staff member, Edna “Bogs” Obuyes, denied on social media that she executed an affidavit to pin down her former boss.
Obuyes, a clerk assigned at the Office of the Justice Secretary, also rejected reports that she has P24 million in a bank account under her name, pointing out that the account was in her nickname, “Bogs,” which she does not use for official transactions, such as opening a bank account.
Aguirre said the leak of the alleged deposit slips to the media was not authorized and was allegedly part of a campaign meant to discredit them.
But the official also backed Caranto’s and Obuyes’ statements, saying that he only asked the DOJ employees to show up at the NBI to clear their names.
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