By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
When DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon took over, he said President Marcos’s marching order was clear: go full throttle against the corrupt, whether inside the department or among contractors, however high the trail leads.
Credit to Dizon for doing just that. He has asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to issue freeze orders, vowing that unmasking and charging plunderers is not enough. Justice means they must return what they stole — people’s money, not theirs.
Just the other day, the AMLC secured its third freeze order, covering 836 bank accounts, 12 e-wallets, 24 insurance policies, 81 vehicles, and 12 properties — altogether part of the P2.9 billion in frozen assets. This follows two earlier issuances that locked down more than 1,500 accounts, 154 vehicles, 30 properties, and 54 insurance policies.
As extensive as these are, AMLC must be quicker on its feet. It is racing against suspects who know how to move faster than the law. AMLC Executive Director Atty. Matthew M. David, you’ve got to keep up!
Sen. Francis Pangilinan proved the point last week when he flagged the LandBank Malolos branch for allowing Syms Construction’s Sally Santos to withdraw P457 million in cash, supposedly as kickbacks for a sacked DPWH engineer.
Half a billion pesos withdrawn over two days — and the bank did not even demand a manager’s check. If that’s not a red flag, then what is? To call it negligence is generous. To call it complicity might be closer to the truth.
Meanwhile, Dizon himself revealed nearly P5 billion worth of aircraft tied to Rep. Zaldy Co and his brother Christopher. From a $36-million Gulfstream jet to $16-million Agusta helicopters, even a Bell 505 linked to a top contractor — these assets should be frozen before they vanish. Reports say attempts to deregister them are already underway at CAAP. AMLC cannot wait; it must move double time.
But as the dragnet tightens, the resignations of Zaldy Co — irrevocably from Congress — and Maynard Ngu from a property firm after being tied by testimony to Sen. Chiz Escudero as his alleged bagman come with little consequence to the public. Neither resignation grants immunity from investigation, much less prosecution. A resignation letter is not a baptismal certificate that suddenly washes their sins away.
But I do question what is to become of Ako Bicol, the party-list Co once lorded over. Its credibility is wrecked. Replacing him with the likely nominee in lawyer Jan Franz Norbert Joselito Chan, I feel, does not cleanse the organization of the taint.
As one witty commenter online quipped, his name alone has too many “insertions” — just like the billions allegedly slipped into the budget under Co’s watch.
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