THE Anti-Money Laundering Council on Monday told the Sandiganbayan it did not raise any red flags on Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada’s bank records before the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund issue in 2013.
Orlando Negradas, the council’s bank investigator, said they did not monitor Estrada’s bank accounts during a hearing at the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division.
He made his statement even as Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the National Bureau of Investigation will intensify its hunt for the alleged dummies of Vice President Jejomar Binay—including Gerardo Limlingan and Eudeviges Baloloy who have been cited for contempt for defying the Senate’s subpoenas to appear before its inquiry on the alleged corruption in Makati City.
She said she expected the Senate to seek the NBI’s assistance in going after Limlingan, Baloloy and 13 other people.
Limlingan, Binay’s alleged bagman, Baloloy and the 13 others were ordered arrested by the Senate’s Blue Ribbon Committee after a recommendation by a subcommittee led by Senator Aquilino Pimentel III.
Negradas said an investigation of Estrada’s alleged ill-gotten assets had just been initiated when the Office of the Ombudsman wrote them on Oct. 11, 2013, requesting an investigation.
He said the Ombudsman was then building up charges against Estrada.
“Meaning, nothing from the suspicious transaction reports regularly sent by the banks to the AMLC database triggered the necessity to investigate?” asked Alejandre Dueñas, Estrada’s counsel.
According to Negradas, a newspaper report published in July 2013 was the “triggering point” in initiating the investigation.
Even the sworn affidavits of the whistle blowers had served as the AMLC’s guide on who to investigate, he said.
When asked by Dennis Buenaventura, the lawyer of Janet Lim-Napoles, Negradas also told the anti-graft court that the AMLC did not find any suspicious transactions on Napoles’ bank accounts.
He said they found questionable transactions on Napoles’ bank accounts over the fertilizer fund scam that became news in 2006.
Despite all those, the AMLC did not conduct a probe.
