MANILA: A Philippine court has ordered to freeze 135 bank accounts linked to allegedly graft-ridden flood control projects as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed to fight corruption in infrastructure projects.
"Preliminary findings point to a possible money laundering scheme involving public funds intended to fund flood control initiatives,” Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Matthew David said in a briefing on Tuesday (Sept 16).
The Court of Appeals’ freeze order on Tuesday is a critical step towards the filing of civil and criminal cases, he said.
Last week, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon asked the dirty money watchdog’s help to freeze accounts and assets of 26 government engineers and private contractors, as the agency builds a case against individuals involved in unlawful activities, according to Dizon’s letter to David.
"We seem to be seeing a pattern of corruption that I think is unprecedented,” Dizon said at Tuesday’s briefing, adding that the amount may run into "hundreds of billions” of pesos and isn’t just confined to one province.
Marcos has vowed to pursue individuals involved in irregular flood control projects, creating an independent commission to investigate how much in government funds have been stolen over the past decade and halting budget allocation for these projects.
His campaign has led to congressional inquiries that exposed massive corruption in flood projects, of which many were substandard or non-existent, fueling public outrage in a nation that’s hit by about 20 typhoons each year.
Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said it has also started an inquiry into bank accounts of individuals implicated in the flood-control corruption controversy, focusing mainly on alleged money muling activities or the use of financial account to receive, transfer or withdraw funds derived from crimes. The central bank’s move is on top of the freeze order from the court. - Bloomberg
