EDITORIAL — Unusual but not suspicious

If the account holder had been a private individual or entity, the withdrawal of P125 million in one go, entirely in cash, would have raised multiple alarm bells.

But because the account holder is the Office of the Vice President and procedures were followed, the Land Bank of the Philippines branch along Shaw Boulevard, while finding the OVP’s cash withdrawal “unusual,” didn’t consider the transaction “suspicious.”

This was according to the Landbank branch manager at the time, Violeta Constantino, who testified before the Senate impeachment court on July 29.

In her 32 years with the government bank, she had never encountered such a huge amount of cash withdrawal, Constantino said, but added that the transaction was properly coordinated with the bank by the OVP.

She said the cash was placed in “three or four” gym bags, rolled out of the bank on a trolley through the back area and loaded into vehicles presumably belonging to the OVP.

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano pointed out that “just because it’s unusual, it doesn’t mean it’s illegal.”

Constantino shared the same view, saying during questioning that she did not find the transaction “suspicious.” She said the OVP’s special disbursing officer Gina Acosta encashed four checks of P125 million each between December 2022 and July 2023.

During congressional inquiries into the flood control scandal, officials of other banks had told lawmakers that they presumed regularity when dealing with the accounts of government agencies including the Department of Public Works and Highways, even when massive amounts were withdrawn in cash.

The bank officials explained that regularity is presumed and the unusual can become usual depending on the record of bank transactions and the known financial resources of an account holder.

For private account holders, the threshold amount for banks to report a transaction is P500,000. The OVP, on the other hand, withdrew a total of P500 million in cash within eight months without triggering any alarm. 

Presumption of regularity facilitates financial transactions and can speed up the implementation of government projects. But this also presumes clean governance.

Now that the institutional rot has been exposed in the handling of public funds, regularity can no longer be presumed in any government agency.

The impeachment trial along with the congressional probes should lead to reforms in the procedures for the release of people’s money to government agencies. Safeguards are urgently needed to prevent the looting of public funds.