By Frank Wenceslao
When FG Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo boasted before a Filipino gathering in New York City in their last visit that President Gloria M. Arroyo (GMA) and he had no illicit assets and bank accounts in the U.S., he thumbed his nose at the FBI and Pamusa to belie our accusation he’s being investigated for money laundering and violation of various U.S. anticorruption statutes.
Our investigators doubled their efforts to prove Arroyo’s lying. They focused on GMA’s 15 foreign trips this year invariably with large entourage each since January up to her meeting with President Obama on July 30 that ended Aug. 4 in NYC. This latest trip had an entourage of 67 members of the Cabinet and Congress.
GMA’s trips became suspicious when the number and frequency surpassed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s foreign trips since Obama’s inauguration. Our investigators found evidence GMA probably has been laundering money from the proceeds of corruption on each trip. By designating a favor-seeker, Leyte’s Rep. Martin Romualdez, reportedly aspiring to be House speaker to pick up the tabs for plane fares, hotel, pocket money and other amenities of entourage members, his expenses after government reimbursement became laundered money for GMA to deposit in her bank accounts skipping anti-money laundering regulations.
Evidently, the money spent in the last U.S. visit came out of Marcos ill-gotten wealth with Imelda Marcos, her brother Benjamin a.k.a. Kokoy Romualdez and sons, Martin and Daniel, a NY-based architect living at the Hamptons he couldn’t possibly afford from his practice. Martin’s fellow congressmen and entourage members were almost unanimous it’s he who picked up the tabs for all 15 trips probably including in previous years.
Kokoy and sons couldn’t have earned legally the money to pay for the cost of GMA’s foreign trips each with large expense-paid entourage. This is evidence that GMA in conspiracy with Imelda Marcos and the Romualdezes probably committed serious crimes on U.S. soil, e.g. corruption, fraud, money laundering, violation of RICO and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
GMA, her husband and the Romualdezes are probably guilty of violating RICO. But Imelda’s acquittal of the crime in 1988 would only enable Pamusa as qui tam plaintiff to sue her civilly to recover Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth in her custody for the Philippine Government. The most plausible explanation that Imelda, her siblings and their children are able to hide Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth the last 23 years is the assets were transferred and invested in the U.S. long before his downfall in 1986 when neither stringent U.S. anticorruption statutes nor the UNCAC was in effect.
Evidence suggests GMA made a deal for a share of Marcos’ hundreds of millions of dollars in the U.S. in exchange of her putting a lid on the PCGG to recover Marcos’ loot which is the agency’s principal task. Moreover, to escape UNCAC and U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Arroyos probably decided their share of Marcos’ with their own illicit assets subsumed with Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth.
I decided to submit our investigation report to U.S. Justice Secretary Eric Holder and the FBI for they’re better able to investigate and decide further legal action. At the same time, I’ve requested the Department to ask the IRS to look at Filipino Americans’ accounts with Union Bank of Switzerland or other Swiss and international banks that may be holding illicit assets of parents, relatives and close associates from the proceeds of corruption.
Needless to say, Pamusa expects to get whistleblower-reward should this information lead to uncovering said Filipino Americans’ illegal accounts resulting in assets forfeiture, payment of back taxes and fines.
I’ve also brought this matter to California’s U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and asked her to support federal action like we have proposed to the White House of a USDOJ-driven program pursuant to the UNCAC’s international cooperation provisions enforced by U.S. anticorruption statutes to recover poor nations’ resources stolen by current and former foreign government officials, their close associates and immediate family members, or private individuals and businessmen that colluded with them.
Sen. Boxer knows that when these stolen resources are plowed back into the Philippine economy, for instance, they are tantamount to U.S. foreign development assistance without actual budgetary allotment. In summary, therefore, I respectfully requested the Senator the following:
1. To ask the FBI and the Department to expedite investigation and legal action on the evidence of the illicit assets that GMA and husband, Imelda Marcos, her siblings and their children from Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth as well as the illegal income from the proceeds of corruption during post-Marcos administrations of current and former Philippine officials and co-conspirators some of whom have children and other relatives who’ve become American citizens using their rights and privileges to violate U.S. anticorruption statutes. Investigation of the Arroyos, et al. can start where the millions of dollars they lost in Wall Street came from due to the U.S. financial markets meltdown.
2. To help Pamusa that I’ve also requested Sec. Holder to obtain financial aid or grant from the stimulus package as U.S. counterpart for private funds we are raising which are slowly coming in impeding Pamusa’s anticorruption efforts that create new California jobs. I pointed out other nationals can replicate Pamusa to recover resources lost to government corruption in their home countries which will also create new California or U.S. jobs.
Finally, I drew attention to the Philippine general elections in May next year. I assured the Senator she’d make a big impact on California’s Filipino American voters should her subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations send a U.S. Senate-sponsored observer group to work with local election watchdogs and help ensure clean, free and honest next year’s elections. Should this come to pass, it’s hoped Filipino American media practitioners would volunteer for the observer group.
Contact author fcwenceslao1034@hotmail.com
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