PRESS RELEASE
16 March 2016
"Day 3 on bank secrecy challenge"
Call to open bank accounts gains ground, Cayetano draws similarities between Binay's ill-gotten wealth and $81-M money laundering scheme
The call of vice presidential bet Senate Majority leader Alan Peter Cayetano for fellow candidates to open their bank accounts as part of their commitment to transparency continued to gain ground. This was after the administration's presidential candidate, former Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas signified intention to make public his bank records.
Cayetano welcomed Roxas' statement but urged him to prove his sincerity by immediately signing the manifesto they prepared pledging to open all bank accounts in local and foreign currencies, both here and abroad. Roxas agreed to open his accounts after Duterte and Cayetano wrote a letter to them urging them to sign the waiver.
"I welcome the response of Sec. Roxas to our challenge. Since 2007, when I scrutinized the bank accounts of then first gentlemen Mike Arroyo, I already called for the lifting of the bank secrecy provisions of the Bank Secrecy Law for public officials. I'm glad that the administration is finally with me on this issue," Cayetano said.
"Extremely similar"
Meanwhile, amid the Senate Blue Ribbon investigation into the $81 million money-laundering operation involving the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), Cayetano drew attention to Binay’s own “money-laundering scheme” using the same bank.
Cayetano cited an Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report where Gerardo Limlingan, an alleged dummy of Binay, had transactions with the RCBC amounting to P3.1 billion. The senator said Limlingan’s transactions alone are equivalent to $68.1 million or just $12.6 million short of the $81 million allegedly withdrawn from Bangladesh’s bank account in the United States.
The one-page portion of the report Cayetano distributed to the media showed that Limlingan had one transaction of P2 Billion, and two transactions of P500 Million through the RCBC, the same bank in question in the ongoing Senate probe.
"The similarities are extreme. Like Binay's ill-gotten wealth, the same bank is involved on both cases. Both involved dummy accounts. And unscrupulous people are hiding behind the same banking law. The only difference is, Binay doesn't need hackers to amass ill-gotten wealth," Cayetano said. "I hope the government has the same enthusiasm in holding the vice presindent and his accomplices accountable for stealing from Filipinos as it now has in probing the $81-million money-laundering scheme," he added.
Day 3: Still Duterte and Cayetano
The duo signed a manifesto committing to open their bank accounts and challenged all candidates to do the same. To date, only Duterte and Cayetano are the only candidates who have actually signed the document.
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