PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday called for the resignation of three officials of the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat whom he called “corrupt” for allegedly obstructing his efforts to pin down the connections of the top officials in the illegal drug trade.
In a speech after signing the P3.35-trillion national budget, Duterte warned that the three officials would be treated as “drug addicts” if they failed to resign immediately.
“I’m warning again central bank for the second time…I’m going to charge all of you there, criminally. I’ll count one to three and if you don’t resign, I will treat you as a drug addict,” Duterte said.
“If they can corrupt everybody”•We have now the money laundering report. But I am warning again 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 until now, there’s no report of this Amla.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said Duterte was referring to AMLC Executive Director Julia Baccay Abad, Vincent Salido, AMLC Deputy Director, and Rafael Echaluse, Bank Attorney IV and Head of the Compliance and Investigation Division as those being asked to resign.
“He was referring to the people implementing the law, the one in the Office of Executive Director, then her Deputy, and the head of investigation,” Aguirre said in a chance interview with reporters.
“The last two, they were brods of Senator De Lima.”
Salido and Echaluse belonged to the Lambda Rho Beta fraternity and were thus fraternity brothers of De Lima, who is a Lambda Rho Sigma sorority sister.
De Lima, a former Justice secretary, allegedly protected drug syndicates inside the national penitentiary in exchange for funds for her 2016 election campaign, an allegation she has repeatedly denied.
Duterte accuses AMLC officials of engaging in politics for being difficult to deal with as the Department of Justice complained it had yet to receive additional documents related to the drug transactions inside the national penitentiary.
“You are contributing to the corruption of this country,” Duterte told the AMLC officials.
“You have reported to the NBI and submitted it very late yet you don’t have the assessment report. The reason why you are placed there is because you need to do your job. If you cannot do your job, get out from that office.”
