That photograph of hundreds of millions in cash stacked casually on nondescript tables is iconic.
The sight of so much cash gives corruption its ugly face. It is no longer an abstraction. Every Filipino who works very hard to earn a few of those bills to buy the bare necessities is shocked by the callous quantity of it all – the workaday attitude of those who dump the cash in suitcases and cartons.
Volumes of cash such as those in the photo are accumulated in many other places and delivered to designated recipients. Hundreds of millions, possibly billions, in cash brought to mansions and penthouses. Deducting those allowed ‘for the boys,’ much of the cash flows to a few central points: the masterminds and protectors of this enormous racket.
Money, as we know, is fungible. My hundred-peso bill is fully interchangeable with your hundred-peso bill. They buy the same things.
But money is fungible only to an extent. At a certain magnitude, there will be difficulty transacting cash.
Our banking system is fully armed to detect financial fraud and ring alarm bells when odd transactions happen. One cannot leisurely walk over to a bank branch and try to deposit a hundred million in cash. A new law designed to fight money muling allows the bank to capture your cash and hold on to it until some very important questions are adequately answered.
In the midst of the corruption crisis we now endure, bank tellers are probably more precious than senators. They detect suspicious transactions and promptly report to the Anti-Money Laundering Council. If our banks get together, we can yet stop those reported suitcases of cash from reentering circulation.
The BSP last week limited cash withdrawals to P500,000. A former finance secretary proposed lowering the peso denominations in circulation. There will be some inconvenience in this, but criminals must be prevented from enjoying the fruits of their betrayal.
So much cash is likely stranded in the mansions of the masterminds. Enough alerts have been issued in the financial and business communities. Cash in large volumes cannot move without detection.
There are many ways corrupt money may be laundered. One way is to use the casinos to convert cash to checks. Our authorities are now keeping close watch over these establishments to avert the country being downgraded as a money laundering haven.
Another way is to accumulate real estate, using cash transactions when possible. This is reflected in the staggering inflation in the choicest real estate developments.
Such has been the volume of the recent scams that the price spiral in golf shares and country club memberships is attributed to them. Some of the dirty money is used to buy luxury goods such as designer bags, expensive wristwatches and supercars to avert depreciation of dirty money.
Over the last three years, the House of Representatives became a living showcase for designer bags, expensive wristwatches and supercars. This should have alerted us to the scale of corruption going on.
Several times in the past, our government printed new money as a method to flush out the caches of cash of the previously powerful. An easier way is to put out search warrants for those places identified by whistleblowers as drop points for suitcases filled with cash. It is never too easy to dispose of cash above a certain quantity.
The corruption attending our infrastructure projects deeply alarmed our people. Churches, business groups including the normally staid Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and schools administrations have all issued statements denouncing the corruption.
We cannot rely on the usual rallies which have been commandeered by the political factions positioning for the next elections. From hereon, every Filipino citizen should speak out when they see things.
Computers should help our banks identify the large cash withdrawals that happened over the recent past. They could also help us identify those performing as money mules for the powerful. Auditors have a heroic role to play in saving our Republic.
Fill social media with anecdotes about luxurious spending by the powerful. We know now, from these anecdotes, who has been splurging on what. Store clerks should spill the beans.
The small guys – those who carried suitcases of cash for their powerful bosses – can tell us a lot. We need their testimonies and their courage to get to the bottom of all these.
The business community is abuzz with stories about powerful individuals trying to buy big time into large corporations. These are more sophisticated ways of laundering dirty money. At some point, all these attempted buy-ins should be documented.
Over the next few weeks, we can look forward to an unprecedented national festival of truth-telling. This is the sort of national festival that is giving the corrupt sleepless nights.
In every community, there should be a forum on how money for local projects has been squandered. There is one amazing story from Albay, for instance, about how a billion pesos in infra funds was used to build a road to the resort of a politician’s underling – contracted out to that politician’s company of course.
Many of these stories will distress us. But they are stories we all need to tell.
That telling photograph of millions in cash leisurely sitting on tables did not just demean our currency. It demeaned the nation.