PH has richest laundry business in the world?

IT IS true that our Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla) is too weak and should be strengthened. As any damn fool can see, dirty money is entering the Philippines like nobody’s business and nobody is doing anything about it, not the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) nor anybody else. A giant corporation is cornering most of the utilities and gobbling up other corporations with what seems to be unlimited money. A sensible person will ask: Where is all that money coming from? Answer: From the laundry business. That should send the AMLC snooping and sniffing around. But it is not a hound dog, it is more like a lapdog that prefers to nap on the lap of its master.

Sen. Teofisto Guingona III is trying to do something about it but his colleagues in the Senate prefer to nap rather than to stop money laundering here.

Guigona’s committee has reported out Senate Bill 3123, which proposes to increase the number of predicate crimes covered by Amla. A predicate offense is a public crime that, as a matter of logic or statutory provision, is or must be a part of an offense.

Nothing wrong with that, but nine senators are trying to delay its passage. Last Wednesday, the last day of session before the Senate adjourns, Senate Bill 3123 remained in the interpellation stage. But the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international agency that can put any country in its blacklist of money launderers, will decide soon “whether or not our efforts against the global fight against corruption and criminal money are enough,” Guingona said.

“In two days we might fall into the black list, formally referred to as the list of Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories,” he added.

The strange part is why some senators are risking the blacklisting of the Philippines for something that would be good for the Philippines. Unless they are protecting somebody who has the largest and most prosperous laundry business in the Philippines, if not in the world.

It has been 155 days since the bill was reported out by his committee, and has been on the plenary’s agenda for 20 days already, he added.

“We owe it to every citizen who wants to see this government effectively win the fight against corruption and dirty money,” Guingona concluded.

My question is: Why? Who are they

protecting? And why, oh why?

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Here’s a follow-up on the intramural at the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). The union has written to Sen. Loren Legarda, asking for a Senate investigation of Zenaida Brigida Hamada Pawid, NCIP’s chair.

Among other things, the union has accused Pawid of:

1. Gross ignorance of Civil Service rules and regulations. “Being the highest official of an agency, she is obliged under RA 6713, otherwise known as the Code of Ethics for Government Officials and Employees, to answer documents, communication and other means of communication within a prescribed period. Documents not pleasing to her remained unacted upon indefinitely.”

2. Favoritism. “Suspension order of the Office of the President was ignored but implemented (on) a lowly employee. An Acting Regional Director has been ordered suspended but a member of his staff was instead slapped the suspension.”

3. Funds for basic services have been returned to the National Treasury, thus denying funds for tribal Filipinos. “The accomplishment of an agency is gauged by the services delivered. But only during the incumbency of Mrs. Pawid were basic services barred from being implemented.”

4. Failure to file her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) as required by law.

Recently, the Office of the Ombudsman reported that Pawid has not filed her SALNs from 1990 to 2011. Pawid was appointed to the NCIP as commissioner in November 2010; she was named chair in June 2011.

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Saggitarius Mines Inc. (SMI) is complaining against the decision of the South Cotabato provincial government banning open pit mining in its territory. As a result, its application for an Environment Compliance Certificate (ECC) has been denied by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources “pending resolution of the ordinance issued by the local government of South Cotabato.”

In a handout, SMI claimed that it is “contributing to the development of the Philippine economy. In capital investment alone, SMI is estimated to have spent P283 billion, considered ‘the single largest foreign investment in the country.’”

And what is the government’s share in this project, the press release asked.

Answering its own question, the handout said: “It is estimated that revenues in the form of taxes and fees could reach P307 billion, while royalty payments will amount to more than P39 billion to be paid to local communities and to indigenous peoples.”

Comment: Obviously the local communities do not think their share is worth the destruction of their land.

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We have nine new beauty queens. They are the nine beautiful and talented young Filipino women from the Visayas and Mindanao who recently won as representatives of their regions in the ongoing nationwide search for Miss Casino Filipino 2012 by Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

They are Nicklyn Cardoza, Mon Theress Menaling and Maria Casandra Yu, all from Cebu; Angelie Joy Golingay, Maria Aika Uy, and Chinky Cantere from Bacolod; and Leonelyn Trocio, Patria Acosta, and Jennyles Bangrot from Davao.

The nine beauties won in the semi-final rounds held at the Casino Filipino branches in Cebu, Bacolod and Davao. They will be competing during the beauty pageant’s Grand Coronation Night on Nov. 16 at the Pagcor Grand Theater in Airport Casino Filipino, Parañaque City, according to a Pagcor handout.