DESPITE attempts by the Land Bank of the Philippines to rule out any irregularity in its handling of nearly half a billion pesos in cash that was released to a government contractor from DPWH funds, Senator Francis Pancratius ‘Kiko’ N. Pangilinan said the government-owned bank fell short of its duties in helping enforce policies to prevent money laundering.
At the plenary session last Tuesday, the senator highlighted the irregularity in Landbank’s release of P457 million in cash within two days.
‘These are all very legalese,’ Pangilinan said in response to a question posed by Senator Ana Theresia ‘Risa’ N. Hontiveros. ‘And if we’re going to use legalese language in order to gloss over the fact that, no matter how you look at it: two days, cash transactions, P457 million-how can that, in any way, be unsuspicious or regular?’
The senator expressed alarm over LandBank’s statement that it faithfully and strictly adhered to existing Philippine banking laws and regulations.
‘Ang tanong: Ibig sabihin ba dahil walang mali sa paglabas ng P457 million cash sa dalawang araw ay mauulit ito? Pwedeng gawin ito dahil to quote, sumunod sila ‘faithfully and strictly’ sa lahat ng existing PH banking laws and regulations?’
[Does this mean that, because they claim there’s nothing wrong in the release of P457 million in cash over two days, this can be repeated? That this can be done again because, to quote, they ‘faithfully and strictly followed’ all existing PH banking laws and regulations?]
Pangilinan added: ‘We beg to disagree. Dapat sana sinabi nila sa kanilang statement ‘maghahanap kami ng paraan para hindi na mangyari ulit ito.” [They should have said in their statement, we will find a way to ensure this does not happen again.]
The senator reminded government banking institutions of their responsibilities given that they’re managing taxpayers’ money being squandered away instead of being used for food, education, health, and livelihood.
‘The only thing I ask of LandBank and whoever drafted their statement, and all of us whose salaries are paid for by the people, is for us to have a mindset of, ‘for the people, we offer every working day, every peso that comes in and out of government banks, is for the Filipino, ouir countrymen,’ Pangilinan continued, partly in Filipino. ‘It is not enough to not do bad but we must not stand idly by while bad is happening, or while bad is already being exposed to everyone. Pakiusap po ito: Please, Landbank, let us do better for our people.’
The senator, in response to a question about possible amendments to existing laws, said that there must be ‘a different set of rules and regulations’ for government banks such as the Landbank and the Development Bank of the Philippines.
Pangilinan also pushed for looking into amending the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) after he flagged both the LandBank and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) for neglecting the suspicious transaction report generated for the P457-million transaction.
‘Shouldn’t they [AMLC] have called LandBank to seek the details? And if AMLC didn’t call, then Landbank should have called AMLC to ask, ‘What should be done with this? P457 million in cash is being withdrawn from the funds of [the] DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways]?,” the senator said.
Pangilinan was referring to the cash withdrawn by Syms Construction Trading Inc. owner Sally N. Santos, one of the DPWH contractors involved in the multi-billion infrastructure corruption issue. The money was meant for former DPWH Bulacan 1st District Assistant Engineer Brice Ericson D. Hernandez, who had admitted to Senate probers that their engineering district was deeply involved in the systematic diversion of huge chunks of funds for flood-control projects, for kickbacks of officials, including lawmakers.