Why POGOs, terrorists and politicos are alike
“BBM! BBM!” politicos chanted when President Bongbong Marcos ordered the closure of POGOs by yearend. Hypocrites.
Chinese offshore gambling operates under cover of bank secrecy. Those politicos refuse to lift financial confidentiality of gangsters. Why? Because doing so will bare proof of their plundering.
Terrorists also thrive under extreme bank secrecy. Authorities at once suspected politicos Arnolfo and Henry Teves of assassinating Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo and five others. But it took five long months to secure a court freeze of bank deposits. By then, Arnolfo had hidden abroad. Manila is a cash conduit for violence and drugs.
POGOs commit terror. Like Jemaah Islamiyah, Maute Gang and Abu Sayyaf, they kidnap, torture, murder and torch cadavers. By retaining ultra-strict bank secrecy, politicos are complicit. The equation:
Bank secrecy => POGOs + terrorists + plunderers
The Philippines is one of only three countries with excessive bank secrecy. The others are Lebanon and North Korea. Criminals prefer safe money havens.
That’s why Malaysian mass-bomber Marwan was able to hole up in Mindanao for a decade despite a $5-million bounty. He was taken out only in 2015, but at the cost of 44 police commandos’ lives.
That’s why even North Korean hackers and Chinese cohorts picked Manila as depository of $81 million that they heisted in 2018 from Bangladesh Central Bank.
That’s why Chinese mainlanders are able to forcibly take over Chinoy businesses and illegally purchase land. Triad gangmen provide the muscle.
Politicos refuse to amend the 67-year-old Bank Secrecy Law. RA 1405 is so outdated that it protects only outlaws. That includes grafters, Kapatiran party president Norman Cabrera told this column.
Paris-based Financial Action Task Force has gray-listed the Philippines. Twenty other countries, or 11 percent of UN members, are in the roster of shady financials.
FATF gray listing begot grave economic repercussions, retired Bangko Sentral deputy governor Diwa Guinigundo said. They’re intertwined:
• Financial transactions are suspected as dirty.
• Jobs remain scarce as foreign investors shun Manila.
• Philippine credit rating dwells at the cellar.
• Overseas financiers exact higher interest rates.
• Exports become uncompetitively costlier.
• Foreign currency inflow and peso value stay low.
National reputation was also damaged. FATF once blacklisted Manila for foot-dragging in forming an Anti-Money Laundering Council. The US threatened trade embargo to make Filipino bankers disclose accounts of Philippine-based tax-evading Americans.
“Those consequences were tangible,” Cabrera lamented. “Restricted trade, stiff credit and stunted investments hurt the poor the most.”
Past Bangko Sentral governors Ben Diokno, 2019-2022, and Felipe Medalla, 2022-2023, had asked Congress to ease bank secrecy. If not, money launderers and terrorists will continue eluding prosecution.
Remember the P12.5-billion Pharmally scam, part of the P42-billion plunder of pandemic supply funds? Presidential special economic adviser Michael Yang, a Chinese national, allegedly godfathered all the implicated racketeers.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee took five months to investigate. Aside from being blocked by president Rodrigo Duterte, it couldn’t get AMLC info fast enough. Duterte’s appointees kept invoking bank secrecy.
The BRC failed to muster enough votes to recommend criminal charges against Duterte and Yang. Having no bank documents on hand, House politicos exonerated them.
The ombudsman took another 28 months to investigate, including penetrating bank secrecy. Still exempted, Yang remains scot-free, whereabouts now unknown.
Under the present law, bank secrecy can be lifted only if: (1) waived by the depositor or (2) by court order.
Cabrera’s Kapatiran proposed to the House last year a third condition: BSP scrutiny on suspicion and prosecution of fraud, irregularity and illegality. Provided that BSP shares findings with AMLC, SEC, Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., Depts. of Justice and of Finance, and the courts. BSP senior assistant governor and general counsel Elmore Capule endorsed the amendment.
The House bill reached third plenary reading in May 2023 then mysteriously was shelved. Senators sat on the counterpart bill of Sherwin Gatchalian.
One can only guess what politicos whispered to each other to kill the bills. It’s an open secret that, year after year, they plunder half the road work and all of flood work budgets.
Election 2025 draws near. Dynasts will use their loot to buy votes.
Speaking of which, revised bank secrecy laws enable America and Europe to jail crooked legislators. Even presidential and prime minister wannabes have fallen.
Closer to home, ex-Comelec chairman Andres Bautista was found to have taken bribes deposited by Smartmatic. The FBI nailed him.
In Manila, 2028 “presidentiables” will do everything to keep bank secrecy as is.
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