DPWH mess ‘shocks’ even BSP. Can it do one thing to assist tackle corruption?

‘I did not know this was all performed in money, in such quantities. That’s surprising,’ BSP Governor Eli Remolona says.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is simply as shocked as the remainder of the nation with the gravity of flood management corruption.

This was straight from central financial institution Governor Eli Remolona, who confirmed that this scheme involving the Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was a lot worse than that they had thought.

“However not on this scale, not on this scale. And never on the dimensions {that a} billion pesos could possibly be stuffed into luggages and dropped at properties, inside automobiles…. And the sight of piles of money on a desk, that’s type of surprising,” the BSP governor mentioned in a One Information interview on Friday, September 26.

“I didn’t know this was all performed in money, in such quantities. That’s surprising,” Remolona added.

The 2 chambers of Congress had launched separate probes to look into corruption in flood management initiatives, simply weeks after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flagged the highest contractors within the nation.

As issues moved quick within the Senate blue ribbon committee, large names are actually being implicated within the corruption scheme, courtesy of witnesses like former DPWH engineers Henry Alcantara and Brice Hernandez, amongst others.

Of their testimonies, the 2 engineers — together with different witnesses — narrated how kickbacks have been handed to politicians, like within the case of former Home appropriations chairperson Zaldy Co. Other than Alcantara, Hernandez additionally mentioned that he delivered roughly P1 billion in money to a employees member of Co. (READ: How hundreds of thousands have been delivered to Romualdez’s residence, as per Zaldy Co’s ex-security aide)

No less than 19 people are actually dealing with felony complaints for graft, malversation, and oblique bribery. This contains incumbent Senators Chiz Escudero, Joel Villanueva, and Jinggoy Estrada, in addition to former senator Bong Revilla.

To this point, Remolona mentioned they’ve already frozen 700 accounts they usually’re on the lookout for extra to freeze. He mentioned the central financial institution is doing “so much” of probing into the monetary system, together with “unusually massive flows of money.”

“However not simply money, any monetary transaction that appears uncommon, we’re making an attempt to research,” Remolona mentioned.

“I believe extra from the federal government monetary establishments, and that is smart as a result of it’s authorities cash, so it will undergo the federal government monetary establishments,” he added, when requested in regards to the supply of the bizarre monetary transactions.

Pink flags in withdrawals?

It was revealed throughout a Senate blue ribbon committee listening to that Sally Santos of the conduit development agency SYMS, was capable of withdraw P457 million in only a single day, as soon as in March and one other in July 2025, in keeping with her ledger which was learn by Senator Panfilo Lacson.

Santos additionally made the next withdrawals in money in a day: P180 million, P141 million, P299 million, P65 million.

Below Republic Act No. 11521, or the Anti-Cash Laundering Act (AMLA), any transaction exceeding P500,000 in a single day is mechanically a coated transaction. Robotically, a CTR or a coated transaction request is shipped by the financial institution to the Anti-Cash Laundering Council (AMLC).

This lengthy course of has pissed off Filipinos, particularly abnormal employees who’re made to leap via hoops simply to transact mere tens of hundreds. For instance, staff who deposit an quantity which is greater than their regular payroll deposits are flagged on the financial institution counter.

The teller would normally ask to see paperwork — generally a contract exhibiting the place that cash got here from. So why didn’t Sally Santos increase pink flags? As a result of she was an accredited contractor of the DPWH.

“Your honor, hindi po kasi ako magtataka o mag-iisip ng damaging because the funding is coming from the federal government, and the DPWH, and understanding it’s for the undertaking, hindi po talaga ako nagtaka po,” mentioned Lilibeth Lim, the Landbank account supervisor assigned to DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Workplace,  the place Santos made the withdrawals.

(Your honor, I didn’t doubt or assume negatively about it since funding is coming from the federal government and the DPWH, and understanding it’s for the undertaking, I actually didn’t doubt.)

Throughout his interview, Remolona additionally defined why the BSP instantly launched an order limiting the money withdrawals to P500,000 a day, in gentle of the DPWH corruption mess.

“We needed to make it tougher for the contractors, for the blokes concerned on this flood management mess, to have the ability to take cash out of the banks. We simply realized that every one these transactions are performed in money,” he defined.

In a round dated September 18, the BSP ordered that transactions P500,001 and above should be performed via traceable channels like checks, on-line fund transfers, or digital funds, amongst others.

The order was launched after the AMLC began its probe into 135 financial institution accounts and 27 insurance coverage insurance policies of public works officers and personal contractors allegedly linked to the DPWH corruption.

“We perceive that there are companies which are actually cash-based, and I believe banks additionally know that. The businessman can come to a financial institution and say, I want money, greater than P500,000, and because of this I want the money, and the financial institution will perceive that,” Remolona famous.

“This flood management scandal was as a lot of a shock to us because it was to you. However we’re working onerous to make things better,” he added. – Rappler.com