Blood ties or none, just deport conman

Seeing the ruling party timid to deport fugitive conman Manuel Amalilio to Manila, the Malaysian opposition is taking up the cudgels for his 15,000 Filipino victims.

Critical parliamentarians are pressing Prime Minister Najib Razak to liaise with Philippine authorities. They also are telling Chief Minister Musa Aman of Sabah, where Amalilio has fled, to not let blood ties with the P12-billion Ponzi-scammer ruin their country’s image.

Opposition head Anwar Ibrahim urged Razak to address fears in Manila that “certain corrupt Malaysian officials” might be harboring the absconder. “I call on the Malaysian leaders to act swiftly on this matter, as it concerns another country,” he told a press conference Friday. “Malaysia’s name is now busuk (stinky) in the Philippines. We are already facing rampant corruption in our own shores. We should not be seen to be protecting the corrupt from being punished in their own country.”

A week before, Malaysian Interpol had informed Philippine lawmen of Amalilio’s arrest in Sabah. But when the latter fetched him, Sabah airport police, on orders of Chief Minister Musa, retook Amalilio ten minutes before the flight. Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who had helped Amalilio’s victims file lawsuits, said the Malaysians invoked citizenship issues.

MP Tian Chua said fellow oppositionists are “embarrassed by the corruption and abuses in our political system.” Due to government controls, the mainstream Malaysian press is generally mum on the scandal. “But we have a moral duty to take a serious interest in this criminal case that has victimized thousands of Filipinos,” Chen added. “Apart from expressing concern, we must play our part to ensure that justice is upheld.”

MP Azmin Ali challenged Musa to come clean about blocking Amalilio’s repatriation. “A mere denial by Sabah police chief Hamza Taib that the matter is not linked to Musa is not enough.”

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Anwar confirmed sketchy reports of Amalilio’s kinship to Musa. “Yes, his mother is Musa’s first cousin,” he detailed to The STAR.

“Amalilio’s real name is Kamal bin Said, born in Beaufort, Sabah. The mother is Zubaidah Omar, cousin of Chief Minister Musa Aman. Haji Aman (Musa’s father) and Haji Omar (Zubaidah’s father) are brothers,” Anwar said.

As to whether Amalilio is Filipino or Malaysian, Anwar stated: “He is married to a Filipina, and holds a Philippine passport.”

“We know for a fact that he is related to the Sabah chief minister, but that is not the point,” Anwar told independent Malaysian newsmen. “We must not be complicit in this. We cannot allow Malaysia’s image to be dragged into mud for personal motives.” He recognized that no less than President Noynoy Aquino wants Amalilio back for justice.

Amalilio is hot topic in predominantly Muslim Malaysia because most of his victims are in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Lowly civil servants, shopkeepers, and policemen who fell for his get-rich-quick scams lost mortgaged homes and failed to send children to school.

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Amalilio fled to Sabah last November when Aquino ordered his arrest. In duping victims he alternately introduced himself as Filipino and Malaysian. Apart from using the name Amalilio, he went by the alias Mohammad Sufian Said, head of Aman Futures. In Sabah he frequently was seen in public.

It was the New Straits Times, run by a party in the ruling coalition, that first reported Amalilio to be Malaysian. Arrested the other Tuesday, he was said to be carrying a driver’s license, birth certificate, and MyKad (the Malaysian citizenship paper required to be carried in Sabah).

Amalilio was detained because he was also carrying a Philippine passport under the name Manuel Karingal Amalilio. Interpol suspected it to be fake, the newspaper said, yet also informed Manila of the catch.

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation who flew to Sabah brought along copies of Amalilio’s Philippine passport and birth certificate. Roxas and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima are sure he is Filipino. The Straits Times said Amalilio can be fined 10,000 ringgit (P130,000) and jailed five years if it’s fake. The ages in his Malaysian and Philippine papers do not tally; so does the birthplace, Sabah’s capital of Kota Kinabalu, 92 kilometers north of Beaufort.

Shady Malaysian citizenship is hot issue too in Sabah since 2011. That’s when Razak’s patron, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad admitted to giving out more than 600,000 “instant citizenships” during the latter part of his term (1981-2003). His successors continued the practice. Most recipients were Filipino and Indonesian traders in Sabah, whose population quadrupled from 1980 to 2010, entirely Muslim.

The citizenships were granted in exchange for voting for the UMNO coalition of Mahathir, Razak and Musa to assume and retain political control of Sabah. Musa is presently under fire for handing out still more citizenships.

Could Amalilio be a Filipino with Malaysian roots who was gifted with one such passport?

He also could have faked his Philippine papers. In which case, 10,000 ringgit and five years’ jail time is miniscule compared to the P12 billion he stole from 15,000 persons. Malaysian authorities know that.

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Manila has no extradition pact with Kuala Lumpur. Still, De Lima, Roxas, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, and Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Ed Malay have legal and diplomatic options to repatriate Amalilio.

The ASEAN has a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. Malaysia too has a 2002 Act for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. These can justify making Amalilio face graver charges in Manila than a slight offense in Sabah. But that is, if blood ti4es will not get in the way.

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