FRANKLY SPEAKING
by Frank Wenceslao
The candidacy and election of Benigno S. Aquino III to the presidency are providential. I believe his campaign theme “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” is providential also. After studying various anticorruption models during the past four years, I’m convinced Aquino can effectively address graft and corruption (G&C), turnaround the country’s decades of deterioration and jumpstart national recovery and sustainable development.
This, of course, depends on the totality of our national leadership joining the world’s indignation against government corruption that bound over 120 of the richest and poor countries including the Philippines into the U.N. Convention Against Corruption and its international cooperation provisions (UNCAC-ICP).
The latter provides, among others, “Countries agreed to cooperate with one another in every aspect of the fight against corruption, including prevention, investigation, and the prosecution of offenders.
Countries are bound by the Convention to render specific forms of mutual legal assistance in gathering and transferring evidence for use in court, to extradite offenders. Countries are also required to undertake measures which will support the tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of corruption.”
Let me cite recent examples that money laundering has become the U.S. favored anticorruption tool even when more serious crimes such as drug trafficking and murders exist. Guatemala’s ex-president Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) was indicted last March by U.S. prosecutors in New York for laundering embezzled public funds and money stolen from a children’s charity through U.S. banks. His extradition to the U.S. where he’d be tried has been ordered by a Guatemalan court.
Last Sunday, May 9, Cancun’s former Gov. Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, one of Mexico’s most feared drug lords, was extradited to New York (his supporters claim he’d been kidnapped by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) where he will be tried for laundering millions of dollars through the now-bankrupt Lehman Bros.
It’s been reported that each Columbian cocaine shipment to the U.S. arranged by him, Villanueva received a sum of $400,000 (£270,000) to $500,000. In 2001, Villanueva was sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering in Mexico. In 2007, he got released but when the U.S. requested his extradition, Villanueva got immediately re-arrested. If convicted on added drug charges, Villanueva could face life in prison in an American federal prison.
Like Al Capone who went to jail for income tax evasion, Villanueva (Madrid is his maternal surname) would go to jail in the U.S. for money laundering not so much for drug trafficking and murders perpetrated by his henchmen. Villanueva became the most senior Mexican politician to be handed over to the U.S. on charges of money laundering.
Thus, Pamusa’s preparing to charge with the FBI Mikey and Dato Arroyo with their spouses for wire fraud in transferring to the U.S. and laundering illegally earned funds by investing in U.S. real estate, business enterprises and making deposits in U.S. bank accounts probably including racketeering (violation of RICO).
They have nobody to blame but their mother and themselves. I’ve warned GMA that if she persisted to run for Congress and appoint Renato Corona to succeed Chief Justice Puno, Mikey and Dato with their spouses will pay dearly for GMA’s perfidies and betrayal of the Filipino people in her 9-year presidency.
Would GMA and husband not follow their children after her presidential immunity ends? Abangan ang susunod na kabanata!
Corona with be similarly charged, as follows: for wire fraud if he’d transferred to the U.S. and laundered funds from inexplicable source or proceeds from corruption probably including racketeering if he’d used the money to invest in U.S. real property, securities and business enterprise. Of course, he’s nothing to worry about if he isn’t culpable for said U.S. crimes that will include conspiracy to commit said crimes and probably foreign corrupt practice, say, if he got paid in the U.S. by a litigant for his favorable decision.
Pamusa will share the whistle reward (15% to 25% of the amount recovered by the Philippine Government) if a litigant or his counsel paid under duress for a favorable decision to any member of the Supreme Court and the judiciary. All we need is when on or about the payment was made in the U.S. to relate it to a bank deposit made and the Suspicious Account Report (SAR) required to be submitted by banks since 9/11/01 to the U.S. Treasury Dept.’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
A notable FinCEN’s action was pulling the rug under the feet of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer who did not know his frequent money transfers from an offshore account to New City’s Emperors Club where his girlfriend Ashley Dupre worked attracted the attention of a combined FinCEN, FBI and IRS task force that got a court order to tap his phone which spelled his downfall, i.e. either he resigned or go to jail.
Money laundering (making illegal income to appear legitimate) has also become a legal tool of choice against government corruption in Japan, Hong Kong & Macau (China), Switzerland, European Union, etc. As shown in Portillo’s and Villanueva’s cases, money laundering alone suffices to indict and extradite an offender to be tried with added charges and sentenced to jail in the U.S. if convicted.
On the other hand, as non-criminal option a registered anticorruption NGO like Pamusa can file civil suit in the U.S. to recover ill-gotten wealth with a lower standard of proof, i.e. preponderance of evidence rather than beyond reasonable doubt to force settlement. Let it be noted though that family members and close associates acting as U.S. custodians or dummies of ill-gotten wealth are in bigger trouble than their principals more so if they’re naturalized American citizens.
They risk additional charges of tax evasion, perjury or false declaration of official documents, and loss of U.S. citizenship including deportation. The earlier Filipinos accept that through Aquino, God has opened a new window of opportunity for our people to be liberated out of pervasive G&C and its debilitating effects of poverty and so on, the better for those to settle ill-gotten gains and have peaceful lives.
On the other hand, no Filipino accused of corruption whether criminally or civilly would fight in U.S. court because of the enormous legal expenses leaving him no option but to settle, return the ill-gotten wealth to the Philippines and probably keep a part as may be approved by the court.
But why wait to be charged? All concerned can step up and negotiate settlement with Pamusa before the incoming Aquino administration comes up with stringent terms and conditions to recover ill-gotten gains and accruals from Marcos to GMA, their cronies and family members, or private businessmen and individuals that colluded with them.
Let me reiterate like a broken record that Pamusa since its founding in August 2006 has repeatedly asked the cooperation of the Arroyo administration, e.g. to grant us PCGG’s power of attorney to be able to liaise with U.S. government agencies and help in the recovery of Marcos’ and cronies’ ill-gotten wealth to no avail.
The PoA could’ve empowered Pamusa to ask the concerned agencies to help PCGG in its requests and appeals to foreign governments “to freeze and prevent the transfer, conveyance, encumbrance, concealment or liquidation of ill-gotten wealth or properties found within their respective jurisdictions, pending the outcome or the appropriate proceedings in the Philippines” (EOs creating PCGG and transferring it to the DOJ).
I’ve informed PCGG chairman and some commissioners, other government officials and business leaders that Pamusa is authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice in its 11/14/07 letter to me to work with and submit evidence to the FBI to request investigation of alleged violation of U.S. anticorruption statutes as part of the U.S. international efforts to combat kleptocracy pursuant to the UNCAC’s international cooperation provisions (UNCAC-ICP).
At about the time I received USDOJ’s letter, FinCEN in its 11/27/07 letter advised that Pamusa can access financial information it collects through SARs and worldwide with foreign counterparts’ cooperation provided Pamusa has governmental authority to interact with the agency. The evidence obtained by FinCEN can be used against an offender charged of corruption or, if requested by our DOJ, transferred to a Philippine court trying the case like.
This was what happened to Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori and his intel chief Vladimiro Montesinos and several other discredited foreign leaders now in jail.
PCGG’s PoA would’ve sufficed as our governmental authority since Pamusa is registered with U.S. State Department as an anticorruption NGO in conjunction with the UNCAC. We lost at least three years to catch big “fishes” probably because GMA and husband were afraid they’d be among the first to be targeted.
As previously reported, Pamusa could’ve verified the truth about the millions of dollars lost by soon-to-be former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, GSIS president Winston Garcia, Pagcor chair Efraim Genuino, Jocelyn Bolante (the “fertilizer” man), DBP President Reynaldo David, Ricky Razon and several other Arroyo cronies with Wall Street investment banks in the U.S. financial market meltdown. Hopefully, the incoming Aquino administration would authorize Pamusa to access the financial information of big Filipino “fishes” collected by FinCEN.
Meantime, the US-PINOYS for NOYNOY-MAR are celebrating Benigno Aquino III’s great victory and wishing him success. We realize though the real work has barely begun, which is why Pamusa’s think tank has drafted a plan to flesh out his campaign theme. This is the real change our people can believe in!
The main objective of Pamusa’s plan is to minimize if not save entirely the approx. $20 billion (P800B) the country loses annually to graft and corruption (G&C) including the human skills OFWs bring overseas and to recover an estimated $10-$15 billion (P400 to P600B) ill-gotten wealth of current and former government officials from Marcos to GMA, their close associates and family members or private businessmen and individuals that colluded with them.
Let me stress the P800 billion lost annually to G&C is double the P400 billion budget deficit this fiscal year projected by newly proclaimed Sen. Ralph Recto. Imagine what the remaining P400 billion can do for poor Filipinos especially when there’s no more GMA to squander the nation’s scarce resources buying House members to avoid impeachment and spending for her useless foreign trips with an entourage always of over 50 favored congressmen and spouses staying in the most expensive hotels and dining in similar restaurants abroad.
Aquino needs to name someone who’d ensure the coherent and consolidated application of government anticorruption powers in PCGG, Ombudsman, Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, and other criminal justice agencies alongside available international legal authorities such as the UNCAC-ICP whose enforcement has been simplified by US laws to recover ill-gotten wealth and its repatriation to the Philippines.
By threatening criminal action for “violation of U.S. laws on American soil” such as what Pamusa will charge Mikey and Dato with spouses of wire fraud, money laundering, racketeering, foreign corrupt practices, and conspiracy to commit the crimes, offenders will be compelled to negotiate settlement and hasten the recovery and return of ill-gotten gains to the Philippines to be spent for the Filipino people.
For direct comments: fcwenceslao1034@gmail.com
by Frank Wenceslao
The candidacy and election of Benigno S. Aquino III to the presidency are providential. I believe his campaign theme “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” is providential also. After studying various anticorruption models during the past four years, I’m convinced Aquino can effectively address graft and corruption (G&C), turnaround the country’s decades of deterioration and jumpstart national recovery and sustainable development.
This, of course, depends on the totality of our national leadership joining the world’s indignation against government corruption that bound over 120 of the richest and poor countries including the Philippines into the U.N. Convention Against Corruption and its international cooperation provisions (UNCAC-ICP).
The latter provides, among others, “Countries agreed to cooperate with one another in every aspect of the fight against corruption, including prevention, investigation, and the prosecution of offenders.
Countries are bound by the Convention to render specific forms of mutual legal assistance in gathering and transferring evidence for use in court, to extradite offenders. Countries are also required to undertake measures which will support the tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of corruption.”
Let me cite recent examples that money laundering has become the U.S. favored anticorruption tool even when more serious crimes such as drug trafficking and murders exist. Guatemala’s ex-president Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) was indicted last March by U.S. prosecutors in New York for laundering embezzled public funds and money stolen from a children’s charity through U.S. banks. His extradition to the U.S. where he’d be tried has been ordered by a Guatemalan court.
Last Sunday, May 9, Cancun’s former Gov. Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, one of Mexico’s most feared drug lords, was extradited to New York (his supporters claim he’d been kidnapped by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) where he will be tried for laundering millions of dollars through the now-bankrupt Lehman Bros.
It’s been reported that each Columbian cocaine shipment to the U.S. arranged by him, Villanueva received a sum of $400,000 (£270,000) to $500,000. In 2001, Villanueva was sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering in Mexico. In 2007, he got released but when the U.S. requested his extradition, Villanueva got immediately re-arrested. If convicted on added drug charges, Villanueva could face life in prison in an American federal prison.
Like Al Capone who went to jail for income tax evasion, Villanueva (Madrid is his maternal surname) would go to jail in the U.S. for money laundering not so much for drug trafficking and murders perpetrated by his henchmen. Villanueva became the most senior Mexican politician to be handed over to the U.S. on charges of money laundering.
Thus, Pamusa’s preparing to charge with the FBI Mikey and Dato Arroyo with their spouses for wire fraud in transferring to the U.S. and laundering illegally earned funds by investing in U.S. real estate, business enterprises and making deposits in U.S. bank accounts probably including racketeering (violation of RICO).
They have nobody to blame but their mother and themselves. I’ve warned GMA that if she persisted to run for Congress and appoint Renato Corona to succeed Chief Justice Puno, Mikey and Dato with their spouses will pay dearly for GMA’s perfidies and betrayal of the Filipino people in her 9-year presidency.
Would GMA and husband not follow their children after her presidential immunity ends? Abangan ang susunod na kabanata!
Corona with be similarly charged, as follows: for wire fraud if he’d transferred to the U.S. and laundered funds from inexplicable source or proceeds from corruption probably including racketeering if he’d used the money to invest in U.S. real property, securities and business enterprise. Of course, he’s nothing to worry about if he isn’t culpable for said U.S. crimes that will include conspiracy to commit said crimes and probably foreign corrupt practice, say, if he got paid in the U.S. by a litigant for his favorable decision.
Pamusa will share the whistle reward (15% to 25% of the amount recovered by the Philippine Government) if a litigant or his counsel paid under duress for a favorable decision to any member of the Supreme Court and the judiciary. All we need is when on or about the payment was made in the U.S. to relate it to a bank deposit made and the Suspicious Account Report (SAR) required to be submitted by banks since 9/11/01 to the U.S. Treasury Dept.’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
A notable FinCEN’s action was pulling the rug under the feet of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer who did not know his frequent money transfers from an offshore account to New City’s Emperors Club where his girlfriend Ashley Dupre worked attracted the attention of a combined FinCEN, FBI and IRS task force that got a court order to tap his phone which spelled his downfall, i.e. either he resigned or go to jail.
Money laundering (making illegal income to appear legitimate) has also become a legal tool of choice against government corruption in Japan, Hong Kong & Macau (China), Switzerland, European Union, etc. As shown in Portillo’s and Villanueva’s cases, money laundering alone suffices to indict and extradite an offender to be tried with added charges and sentenced to jail in the U.S. if convicted.
On the other hand, as non-criminal option a registered anticorruption NGO like Pamusa can file civil suit in the U.S. to recover ill-gotten wealth with a lower standard of proof, i.e. preponderance of evidence rather than beyond reasonable doubt to force settlement. Let it be noted though that family members and close associates acting as U.S. custodians or dummies of ill-gotten wealth are in bigger trouble than their principals more so if they’re naturalized American citizens.
They risk additional charges of tax evasion, perjury or false declaration of official documents, and loss of U.S. citizenship including deportation. The earlier Filipinos accept that through Aquino, God has opened a new window of opportunity for our people to be liberated out of pervasive G&C and its debilitating effects of poverty and so on, the better for those to settle ill-gotten gains and have peaceful lives.
On the other hand, no Filipino accused of corruption whether criminally or civilly would fight in U.S. court because of the enormous legal expenses leaving him no option but to settle, return the ill-gotten wealth to the Philippines and probably keep a part as may be approved by the court.
But why wait to be charged? All concerned can step up and negotiate settlement with Pamusa before the incoming Aquino administration comes up with stringent terms and conditions to recover ill-gotten gains and accruals from Marcos to GMA, their cronies and family members, or private businessmen and individuals that colluded with them.
Let me reiterate like a broken record that Pamusa since its founding in August 2006 has repeatedly asked the cooperation of the Arroyo administration, e.g. to grant us PCGG’s power of attorney to be able to liaise with U.S. government agencies and help in the recovery of Marcos’ and cronies’ ill-gotten wealth to no avail.
The PoA could’ve empowered Pamusa to ask the concerned agencies to help PCGG in its requests and appeals to foreign governments “to freeze and prevent the transfer, conveyance, encumbrance, concealment or liquidation of ill-gotten wealth or properties found within their respective jurisdictions, pending the outcome or the appropriate proceedings in the Philippines” (EOs creating PCGG and transferring it to the DOJ).
I’ve informed PCGG chairman and some commissioners, other government officials and business leaders that Pamusa is authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice in its 11/14/07 letter to me to work with and submit evidence to the FBI to request investigation of alleged violation of U.S. anticorruption statutes as part of the U.S. international efforts to combat kleptocracy pursuant to the UNCAC’s international cooperation provisions (UNCAC-ICP).
At about the time I received USDOJ’s letter, FinCEN in its 11/27/07 letter advised that Pamusa can access financial information it collects through SARs and worldwide with foreign counterparts’ cooperation provided Pamusa has governmental authority to interact with the agency. The evidence obtained by FinCEN can be used against an offender charged of corruption or, if requested by our DOJ, transferred to a Philippine court trying the case like.
This was what happened to Peru’s former President Alberto Fujimori and his intel chief Vladimiro Montesinos and several other discredited foreign leaders now in jail.
PCGG’s PoA would’ve sufficed as our governmental authority since Pamusa is registered with U.S. State Department as an anticorruption NGO in conjunction with the UNCAC. We lost at least three years to catch big “fishes” probably because GMA and husband were afraid they’d be among the first to be targeted.
As previously reported, Pamusa could’ve verified the truth about the millions of dollars lost by soon-to-be former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, GSIS president Winston Garcia, Pagcor chair Efraim Genuino, Jocelyn Bolante (the “fertilizer” man), DBP President Reynaldo David, Ricky Razon and several other Arroyo cronies with Wall Street investment banks in the U.S. financial market meltdown. Hopefully, the incoming Aquino administration would authorize Pamusa to access the financial information of big Filipino “fishes” collected by FinCEN.
Meantime, the US-PINOYS for NOYNOY-MAR are celebrating Benigno Aquino III’s great victory and wishing him success. We realize though the real work has barely begun, which is why Pamusa’s think tank has drafted a plan to flesh out his campaign theme. This is the real change our people can believe in!
The main objective of Pamusa’s plan is to minimize if not save entirely the approx. $20 billion (P800B) the country loses annually to graft and corruption (G&C) including the human skills OFWs bring overseas and to recover an estimated $10-$15 billion (P400 to P600B) ill-gotten wealth of current and former government officials from Marcos to GMA, their close associates and family members or private businessmen and individuals that colluded with them.
Let me stress the P800 billion lost annually to G&C is double the P400 billion budget deficit this fiscal year projected by newly proclaimed Sen. Ralph Recto. Imagine what the remaining P400 billion can do for poor Filipinos especially when there’s no more GMA to squander the nation’s scarce resources buying House members to avoid impeachment and spending for her useless foreign trips with an entourage always of over 50 favored congressmen and spouses staying in the most expensive hotels and dining in similar restaurants abroad.
Aquino needs to name someone who’d ensure the coherent and consolidated application of government anticorruption powers in PCGG, Ombudsman, Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, and other criminal justice agencies alongside available international legal authorities such as the UNCAC-ICP whose enforcement has been simplified by US laws to recover ill-gotten wealth and its repatriation to the Philippines.
By threatening criminal action for “violation of U.S. laws on American soil” such as what Pamusa will charge Mikey and Dato with spouses of wire fraud, money laundering, racketeering, foreign corrupt practices, and conspiracy to commit the crimes, offenders will be compelled to negotiate settlement and hasten the recovery and return of ill-gotten gains to the Philippines to be spent for the Filipino people.
For direct comments: fcwenceslao1034@gmail.com
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