DOJ sending team to Malaysia for Amalilio’s return

MANILA, Philippines - The government will send a high-level team to Malaysia to work for the return of businessman Manuel Amalilio, owner of the investment company that allegedly defrauded thousands of investors in the Visayas and Mindanao of more than P12 billion.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima bared yesterday that this would be after the Malaysian general elections on May 5.

Amalilio is currently serving a two-year jail term in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for possession of a fake passport.

De Lima said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has already given its go-signal to the justice department’s mission.

“We have yet to set the exact date. I think it would be better if we send the team after the general elections in Malaysia,” she explained.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) wants the immediate extradition of Amalilio to the Philippines to face during trial the investors duped by the suspect’s Aman Futures Group Phils. Inc.

His extradition was called off last month due to the crisis in Sabah resulting from the incursion of the armed supporters of the sultanate of Sulu last February over a territorial claim.

The team, led by Justice Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar and tasked to negotiate with Malaysian officials for the extradition of Amalilio, was set to leave last March 12.

They were to hand over the formal request for extradition and supplemental request involving the freezing of assets of Amalilio and other forms of assistance.

De Lima said there is also an urgent need to work on the forfeiture of Amalilio’s assets both in the Philippines and Malaysia.

She said the DOJ team would also be working on getting the affidavit of Amalilio.

Following Amalilio’s botched deportation to the country last Jan. 25, the Malaysian government moved to freeze his assets there.

Several cases for syndicated estafa were filed in different trial courts in Mindanao against Amalilio, officers of his firm and their agents, including Pagadian City Mayor Samuel Co who is now a fugitive.