source: philstar.comMANILA, Philippines - Relatives of the victims of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre filed yesterday graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman against Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco and two other officials of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) for their alleged failure to investigate the suspected money-laundering activities of the Ampatuan clan.
In a 30-page joint-affidavit, complainants led by one Ma. Cipriana Gatchalian said nothing was done to stop the powerful Ampatuan clan from amassing ill-gotten wealth, which was discovered only after the murder of 57 people on Nov. 23, 2009 in Maguindanao.
The complainants claimed that Tetangco, former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Fe Barin, and former Insurance Commission acting commissioner Vida Chiong, all members of AMLC, did not use their power to look into suspicious transactions and file charges against the Ampatuans.
They said the respondents are liable for graft, dereliction of duty, and administrative misconduct for not exercising their investigative and prosecutorial powers.
“More than 500 days have passed since the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao Massacre and the AMLC, under respondent Tetangco’s leadership, has not lifted a finger to investigate the Ampatuan’s ill-gotten wealth and money-laundering activities, including those occasioned by their alleged attempt to bribe responsible government officials so they could be let off the hook,” they said.
“Indeed, they did nothing, not even when some of the private complainants here filed with the AMLC on Nov. 4, 2011, a joint petition to investigate and prosecute personalities linked to the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre for violations, among other things, of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act,” they said.
The complainants said that the Commission on Audit (COA) has reported financial irregularities in the Office of the Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the amount of P1.003 billion for the years 2008 and 2009 alone.
They said Tetangco, Barin, and Chiong “are guilty of abetting or tolerating the commission of a crime when they did nothing to investigate the Ampatuans’ ill-gotten wealth and their money-laundering activities.”
“Their inaction is inexcusable,” said the complainants, represented by lawyer Harry Roque.
The complainants said “the brazenness with which the Ampatuans flaunted their unexplained wealth even long before the gruesome murders took place could not have passed unnoticed by respondents.”
“The immense ill-gotten wealth of the Ampatuans ought to have constituted enough basis to investigate them for any of the crimes enumerated in the relevant provisions of Section 3 of RA 9160 (the Anti-Money Laundering Act) as predicate crimes for a money-laundering investigation, including graft and corrupt practices and plunder,” they added.
Despite evidence that could be uncovered considering that the BSP has an office in Davao City, the complainants said “there was nothing but an inexplicable silence from the AMLC since day one.”
The widows of seven journalists who died in the Maguindanao massacre are hoping to strengthen the plunder case that they earlier filed against 25 members of the Ampatuan clan by including the COA report on the questionable transactions of the Office of the ARMM Governor as evidence against the respondents.
In a supplemental motion filed yesterday, they said the audit report could be used to further prove how the Ampatuans amassed up to P200 million in unexplained wealth over the past years.
In their original complaint filed in January this year, they said the Ampatuans were able to acquire some 35 mansions in Davao alone and about a hundred vehicles, 56 of which are luxury cars, during their political rule in the province of Maguindanao.
source: philstar.com
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