At least 20 bank accounts believed to be used as depository of drug money from the New Bilibid Prison are included in the report of the anti-money laundering council. According to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, the report shows transactions on the accounts but he refused to disclose how much money was involved all-in-all.
Aguirre: “It’s a report containing the requested bank account names and bank account numbers. Halimbawa, sinasabi dun merong deposit amounting to almost 500 hundred million, yun ang maaaring nakalagay dun at kung ilang beses nagdeposit.”
Aguirre says while the accounts could not link directly to Senator Leila De Lima they belong to people with close ties to the former secretary. He argues that it is already expected that De Lima will not keep the accounts in her name if indeed she received money from drug lords in the bilibid.
Aguirre: “Of course, I would not have requested for it if the owners are not close to her. For example, this is just an example, Ronnie Dayan has P500 million under his account, Would you not wonder? Does Ronnie Dayan has the means to earn such amount of money? So what would be your conclusion? It was given or entrusted to him by his boss for safekeeping.”
Aguirre adds that the records could be used in filing the necessary charges. With this is presented during the house inquiry claim JB Sebastian instructed them to deposit drug money to certain bank accounts as contribution to De Lima Senatorial Campaign.
For now Aguirre says the AMLC report will be used in further investigation into the bilibid drugs trade.
