Lawyer: PNP to get back euros

The Philippine National Police (PNP) might finally get back the 105,000 euros or P6.9 million seized from retired police comptroller Director Eliseo de la Paz at the Moscow airport last Oct. 11 after Russian authorities cleared him of any criminal intent, his lawyer said yesterday.

Lawyer Noel Malaya, De la Paz’s counsel, made the claim based on a letter sent to Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno from the Department of Foreign Affairs last Dec. 18.

Malaya said the Russians dismissed the case against De la Paz and his wife Marife after they found during investigation that the couple had no intent of hiding or smuggling money from Russia.

“There was no criminal intent. The Russian investigators concluded that the wife (Mrs. De la Paz) had no intent of smuggling and did not hide the currency she was carrying. She showed it (currency) to the police officer on first request,” Malaya said.

De la Paz and his wife Marife were held at a Moscow airport last Oct. 11 for carrying the undeclared euros after they attended the 77th Interpol General Assembly in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Russian government has not informed officials of the PNP, DILG and DFA of the developments in the investigation of the case of the De la Paz couple.

Malaya said the DFA letter to the DILG “wishes to inform and provide a copy to the DILG chief the results of the investigation made by the Russian Customs Office’s investigation division conducted by Investigator Rodenko.”

Malaya said the letter stated that the criminal prosecution had been dismissed.

De la Paz admitted that he withdrew the 105,000 euros allegedly from the account of the PNP Directorate for Intelligence.

Malaya said the seized euros from De la Paz are now in the trust account of De la Paz’s Russian lawyer Alex Binetskiy but there were some documents and legal requirements that had to be met before it can be returned to the PNP account.

“Usually the process takes two to three weeks,” said Malaya, who noted that Binetskiy arrived in Manila last Dec. 22 to “facilitate and expedite” the local legal and documentary requirements.

Malaya said Binetskiy would return to Russia today to fix legalities for the money transfer.

“The money will be transferred to a PNP bank account and they are just finalizing some legalities and paper work. We expect the money to arrive in two to three weeks’ time,” Malaya said.