EDITORIAL - Asset recovery

Assets of public officials and private contractors implicated in the flood control scandal have been frozen, and moves are underway for the civil forfeiture of wealth believed to be ill-gotten.

Authorities, however, will have to move even faster to secure the assets of those suspected of involvement in what is estimated to be a trillion-peso corruption scandal.

One cautionary case in point is the asset watch covering resigned Ako Bicol party-list representative Elizaldy Co, who chaired the powerful committee on appropriations of the House of Representatives in the 19th Congress.

It’s not only Co who has flown out of the country. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, at least three of Co’s multibillion-peso air assets were flown out in August and September.

That was shortly before Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon announced that he had alerted the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the Department of Justice and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure that Co, through companies linked to him, owned 11 air assets valued at around P4.7 billion.

Last Tuesday, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said a Gulfstream jet believed owned by Co has been in Singapore since Aug. 16. Two AgustaWestland helicopters were flown to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia on Aug. 20 and Sept. 11.

Co left for the United States in July ostensibly for treatment of an unspecified medical condition. His current whereabouts remain unknown.

The three aircraft are registered under his Misibis Aviation and Development Corp., which reportedly also has three other air assets: two Bell 407 helicopters and a Bell 206B3. More air assets are being tracked down through contractor companies linked to Co: Hi Tone Construction Corp. and QM Builder.

Yesterday, the Independent Commission for Infrastructure recommended to the Office of the Ombudsman the criminal indictment of Co together with Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva and several others. Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said his office would rely on the ICI findings and recommendations to speed up the filing of cases in court.

Alongside the criminal prosecution is the effort to recover illegally amassed wealth. In this, authorities must step up their vigilance to prevent such assets from being moved beyond the reach of Philippine law.