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Friday, March 29, 2024

Tiu sues AMLC over CA petition

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THE family of businessman Antonio Tiu filed a P100-million damage suit against officials of the Anti-Money Laundering Council before a Quezon City court over a supposedly false report they submitted to the Court of Appeals to justify the issuance of a freeze order.

At the same time, the opposition United Nationalist Alliance said the case of Tiu illustrates the Aquino government’s “selective and one-sided justice” that is part of a pattern of “diametrically opposed treatment” of its allies involved in a web of anomalies and administrative issues.

Sued before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court were Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., Bangko Sentral governor, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Teresita Herbosa, Insurance Commission Chairman Emmanuel Dooc and AMLC executive director Julia Bacay-Abad [not related to the Presidential Management Staff secretary of the same name].

The Tius urged the court to order the respondents to pay them P50 million in moral damages, P50 million in exemplary damages and P1 million in attorney’s fees.

In a 17-page complaint, Tiu alleged AMLC members, led by Abad, of violation of the Civil Code by causing the preparation of the AMLC report, and filing of an ex-parte petition anchored on the report itself.

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The report supposedly contained defamatory statements against plaintiffs, and that it was unlawfully distributed to third parties and maliciously imputed the Tiu clan of the crime of money laundering, and graft and corruption, thereby attacking their persona through fault and negligence, the complaint said.

The AMLC officials acted with bad faith in drafting the report which served as the sole basis for the filing of an ex-parte petition for issuance of freeze order with the Court of Appeals, Tiu said.

“Worse, Defendants have caused, through the unlawful distribution thereof to third parties, much publicity to the AMLC Report, as well as the malicious, false and baseless contents thereof – precisely to malign and discredit institutions and persons, both public and private,” he noted.

The AMLC officials lied to the CA and its authorized representatives perjured themselves when they stated under oath that the case covered multiple transactions, according to Tiu.

“A simple perusal of the disclosures of Greenergy lodged with the Philippine Stock Exchange, hence, already public and readily accessible to AMLC, would already belie the claim of the AMLC Report,” the petition read.

UNA interim president and Navotas City Rep. Tobias Tiangco said the case illustrates the Aquino government’s “selective and one-sided justice.”

“The pattern is obvious when it comes to how the administration is treating is allies as against its political enemies involved in controversies and anomalies,” Tiangco said, adding that the administration’s handling of the case was “lopsided and unfair.”

Tiangco said he expects the Aquino administration to intensify its ‘political hatchet job’ against its opponents in 2016 as “its candidate in 2016 will carry on the vendetta against its enemies.”

“With what the Administration and their candidate are offering, we are looking at an extended years of political hatchet job against enemies, of unmoderated plunder and graft by partymates and allies; the incompetence and wanton disregard for the welfare of the people,” he pointed out.

Tiangco said the administration is “on a roll” in absolving its allies while continuously using resources to pin down those non-allied with it, particularly those identified with Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“This government easily absolved its allies even if they involved in large scale corruption; while   those non-allied with them are subjected to endless attacks using government resources,” Tiangco said.

Tiangco said that issues like the alleged irregularities in the construction of the Iloilo Convention Center was only given one hearing in the Senate when it was subject to two resolutions in both houses of Congress.

“What happened to the alleged irregularities in the overpriced construction of the Iloilo Convention Center? This is a key example of how this Administration is lightning fast in absolving its allies, particularly Senate President Franklin Drilon, who is also a ranking Liberal Party official,” he said.

Tiangco urged the Office of the Ombudsman to exercise transparency to show proof that it indeed coordinated with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to probe Drilon’s bank accounts.

“The AMLC probed the Vice President but did the Ombudsman also ask the AMLC to do the same to Drilon’s accounts?” Tiangco asked, scoring the Commission on Audit for clearing the Senate on the issue of consultancies.

The COA had previously said that some senators exceeded the P400,000 and P500,000 monthly budget for senators without committee chairmanships and those with committee chairmanships. A senator was found out to have given a consultant more than P94, 000 a month while another senator hired 60, the COA said.

 

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