Binay and the AMLC report

The VP needs a poke in the eye for continuously denying his alleged ill-gotten wealth. Bank transactions reported by AMLC are devastating enough that he can no longer keep his finger on the dike to prevent the cascading evidence.  

The amounts involved are in the billions, a smoking gun that dwarfs the one-page unnotarized agreement between Sunchamp and Mr Laureano Gregorio regarding the sale of Hacienda Rosario. It will be remembered that such agreement is a conditional sale suspending the transfer of absolute ownership until a particular event happens. (READ: Lord of Makati)

Obviously, that event will never happen since the real owner is hiding ownership. That the buyer and the seller were used as apparent dummies in this single transaction is a novel idea. Mr Gregorio should appear in the hearings to dispel such doubts.  

In the matter of the AMLC report, earning billions in a few short years through clean and honest hard work simply defies logic. Yet his mouthpieces continue to twist the truth in a futile attempt to save a burning ambition to a dying presidency.

They must have thought that people wouldn’t know how to connect the dots. Comments on social media belie this wrong notion. People are more engaged when it comes to their tax money. 

Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado owned up and agreed to return the P80 million traced to his accounts by the AMLC. Meanwhile, the VP continues to feign innocence. He wants people to believe that if there were financial hankie-pankies going on in the city of Makati, he wasn’t aware of them. That if the Vice Mayor pocketed P80 million from under the table deals, he as the mayor received nothing for he didn’t know about those transactions that happened right under his nose.

What a display of incompetence. Heck, that’s why a lipstick on a pig doesn’t make it look better, it’s still a pig. In the same vein, one cannot deodorize the stink of corruption regardless of the perfume one wears. 

The VP went all-out to stop the AMLC from investigating and reporting his bank accounts including his alleged dummies. But when the Council reported 242 accounts, all his denials began to crumble.

Why would dummies who are not even relatives maintain joint accounts with hundreds of millions in it? Common sense dictates that you don’t commingle your own money with that of another. It’s as simple as that, unless of course, there’s a scheme from the higher-ups.

And to think that the AMLC does not even include the mansions and the hacienda, the enormity of alleged corruption becomes mind-boggling. But where did all this money come from? For sure a legit job will not earn billions unless secret deals are consummated in closed rooms.

When the Ombudsman suspended Junjun, she said that the evidence of guilt is strong. The VP is buying time and he knows that. Perhaps when the Ombudsman files a case of plunder, then that will be the time. Perhaps when no honest politician is willing to run under the Binay banner, that will be the time. 

And perhaps when the spokesmen could no longer weave a fabric of lies, then that will be the time. Finally, when the dynasty is dismantled and its members held to account, then that will be the time.

Political horse-trading is a common occurrence in Philippine politics. Supporters are at the beck and call of the politician. So if Erap delivers his 10 points to the VP, his followers become mere deliverable goods.

Quid pro quo so to speak. “I’ll give you this if you give me that,” all for the interest of the politicians but to the detriment of taxpayers.

This coming election will turn many politicians into merchants bartering votes to achieve a selfish purpose.      

It is the duty and obligation of every citizen to campaign for a clean government represented by politicians of unsullied character. (READ: A smart voter’s checklist)

Voters must link arms and stamp out corruption in every hall of government. Social media can make it happen. And as the word spreads to every nook and cranny, voters will be more informed.

We have hit rock bottom, there’s no other way but up. – Rappler.com

Cesar F. Crisostomo retired from work after 35 years. His first job was as an accounts receivable clerk and was a corporate comptroller. He was also a trial lawyer for two years in the Philippines until he moved to Carson, California. He occasionally gives legal advice to his kababayans, although accounting is the meat of his practice.