(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte called on all members of the Anti- Money Laundering Council to resign, saying that all of them were “corrupt.”
Duterte was furious that the central bank’s Anti-Money Laundering Council had failed to provide him an unspecified “assessment report”.
“I’ll count one to three and if you don’t resign, I will treat you as a drug addict,” he said.
In a speech after signing the 2017 national budget, he said: “Better prepare there because I’ll give you a whack.”
“You are all corrupt,” he said, without naming any official.
“I am going to charge all of you there, criminally.”
Duterte gave the warning to the AMLC officials because of their alleged unwillingness to cooperate with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) which is probing alleged drug suspects, including public officials being tagged in the illegal drugs trade.
“I am warning again the Central Bank for the second time. It was not until I burdened at them during the NBI, National Bureau of Investigation anniversary, and I was there. And I was told by the director [that up to now], there’s no report of this AMLC,” he said in his speech at the ceremonial signing of the 2017 national budget in Malacañang.
He accused the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of not supporting his war on drugs.
Duterte took aim at the AMLC, which is chaired by respected Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco, whom Duterte has been urging to extend his tenure beyond the 12 years he soon will have served.
The maverick former mayor was in the middle of an unusually placid speech ahead of the holiday period, but became angry when he mentioned his crackdown on drugs and said those who should be chasing the money trail were all politicized and tainted.
“The Anti-Money Laundering Council has the power to see everything. It has the blanket authority to take a look at…They say I have P211 million, then why didn’t they investigate me? I’m saying now that it’s not true. If I really have 211 billion, they why not investigate me,” he said.
Tetangco did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the executive director of the AMLC was not available for comment when Reuters contacted the council.
Deputy central bank governor Diwa Guinigundo said the Bangko Sentral was independent and it would not comment on the president’s remarks.
“One thing we know, we are not serving politics,” he told reporters.
But Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said President Duterte was referring only to three officials in the AMLC, and not the Central Bank governor who in fact, the President wants to remain in office.
Aguirre claimed that two officials in AMLC were supposedly connected to Senator Leila de Lima.
He said the AMLC had not submitted an assessment of the accounts requested by Malacanang, or even an analysis of those accounts.
He was that what was given to them were just statements of accounts.
Teresita J. Herbosa and Dennis B. Funa are the designated Members of the AMLC, while Julia C. Bacay-Abad is the Executive Director of the AMLC Secretariat. (with reports from Reuters and Agence France Presse)