"Who are these groups bringing in the hard foreign currency?"
"Who are these groups bringing in the hard foreign currency?"
The activities of some Chinese nationals in the country should start to worry government leaders. In one murder incident, identification cards belonging to the People’s Liberation Army were left at the crime scene, prompting some senators to call for an investigation. This was followed by the revelation of Senator Richard Gordon that some Filipino and Chinese groups are bringing into the country hard currency in the hundreds of millions of dollars beginning late last year to February of this year. The amount as of yesterday has already reached $470 million.
As a result, there is a lot of speculation that the money is illegal or being laundered here. The plot is therefore thickening. For the government, it is the legislative branch led by the Senate that seems to be taking the situation more seriously. The Executive branch did start looking into it but the effort has not been aggressive enough which is understandable considering the legality or illegality of the money brought in.
Money laundering simply is the process of converting money obtained illegally to become legal. For instance, if the money comes from the proceeds of a crime enters our banking system, then it could be said that the money has been laundered.
In the case of these millions of dollars entering the country, there are procedures for these as contained in the Anti-Money Laundering Law. Most countries including our own allow the entry of hard currency regardless of amount so long as it is declared with the Customs upon arrival. The threshold is $10,000. Any excess amount must be declared.
Once this is done, that money can now enter our financial system legally and could be tracked. The amount declared could also be brought out. This is perhaps why as far as the executive is concerned, the response has been subdued. In fact, so long as the money is used to buy real estate, start a business or deposited in our banks, the government will probably do nothing.
Still, there are legitimate questions that should be asked. Who are these groups bringing in the hard foreign currency? Are they legitimate businessmen who have the capacity to be holding huge amounts of money? Could they just be carriers? One thing that the government can do is coordinate with the authorities of Hong Kong and Singapore to determine why and how the money could easily be brought out of these places. This kind of activity falls under the purview of transnational crime.
The Philippine National Police and National Bureu of Investigation have transnational investigative capability which they have been building up for some years. The two could start the leg work and gather data in preparation for a full blown investigation.
The government also has a Special Envoy for Transnational Crime who could start coordinating all government efforts. These agencies could start by looking into the activities of the people identified by Senator Richard Gordon. Do they have records of illegal activities? Most of them are apparently known to the Customs people.
Whatever it is, there is a need for thorough investigation of the case so that the authorities can get to the bottom of this. Some are even saying that the money could be used for espionage operation which at face value does not seem to be the case. Espionage, after all, is normally a state-sponsored activity and involves more sophisticated operations. It is also ordinarily done through the foreign embassies located in the Metro area. It could, of course, be industrial espionage but I cannot think of any important trade secret that we have that other countries do no already know. If it has something to do with military espionage, the people that Senator Gordon is referring to are obviously the Chinese who are all over the place and were the ones involved in the murder case.
Gordon also referred to some Chinese nationals using the identities of dead Filipinos with the connivance of corrupt officials. This in fact is not new. This practice has been going on for a long time. Although the government estimates that there are about 150,000 Chinese nationals currently working in many POGO companies, the actual number according more reliable figures is closer to 470,000.
Why the huge discrepancy in the figures? This is why the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation must be thorough. It would give the public a clearer picture of what is really going and what the government intends to do about it.
Yes, the Secretary of Finance was reported to have given instructions for a robust investigation, but what some might be waiting for is for the President to give the specific instructions. This is because it is through him that the Executive branch marches more forcefully.
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About two weeks ago, General Archie Gamboa, the Chief of the PNP, announced a program to go after so-called ghost pensioners. These are people who continue to receive pensions when they are no longer legally authorized to receive them.
From what I was reliably informed, there are about 92,000 police pensioners. Out of this number, only 42,000 of could be accounted for and about 50,000 could not. Now, there is a command-wide accounting of retired personnel to determine where they are or whether they are still alive or already dead. The trouble with this process is the difficulty of elderly pensioners who are being told to produce so many records when, in fact, service records are more complete in Camp Crame. To our active serving personnel, please try to find ways to make it easier for us retirees.