The Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered the freezing of some 160 accounts and insurance policies in 16 banks and three other financial institutions that convicted drug lord Peter Co and his associates allegedly used to facilitate more than P10 billion in transactions over the past decade. (See table.)

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The order, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer, came after the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) petitioned the appellate court on Jan. 17 to freeze the accounts and policies.

The freeze order was issued on Jan. 20 by Associate Justice Stephen C. Cruz and concurred in by Associate Justices Jose C. Reyes Jr. and Ramon Paul L. Hernando.

Named respondents in the case were Chinese nationals Co, Ronnie Chua, Jiangbo Wu Yang, Arthur Sy Ong and Yiyan Su alias Su Yiyan; Filipino citizens Concepcion Magtira Chua, Carmen Sy Cu, Rogelyn Ann Floro Zhuang, Roger Tan Teodosio, Ferdinand Parina Cajipe, Lovely Castro Aguilar and Jojo Rondal Baligad; and, dummy firms Blue Oceanic Textile Marketing and Tencent Import and Exporting Corp.

Six-month freeze

The CA said there was probable cause to issue the six-month freeze order based on evidence presented by the AMLC that the bank accounts and financial instruments were used in violation of Republic Act No. 9160, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, and that Co and his associates were involved in money laundering.

“Validation by the AMLC of the transactions in the Forensic Extraction Report, involving more than P500,000 each, proved the report to be accurate and that the transactions actually occurred,” the CA said.

The 164 bank deposits and insurance policies of Co and his syndicate members were spread over 16 banks and three other financial institutions—Banco de Oro (BDO), East West Bank, Philippine Bank of Communications, United Coconut Planters Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, BPI Family Savings Bank, China Banking Corp., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Philippine National Bank, Bank of Commerce and Philippine Savings Bank.

HSBC Savings Bank, Maybank Philippines, Philippine Business Bank, Union Bank of the Philippines, Asia United Bank Corp., Philippine AXA Life, Sunlife of Canada and Esquire Financing Corp.

8 BDO accounts for payments

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The AMLC cited eight specific bank accounts where the drug distributors pay for the drugs delivered by Co’s group—BDO Waltermart Guiguinto, BDO Quezon Avenue Fisher Mall, BDO Tagaytay Mendez junction, BDO Paso de Blas North Expressway and four BDO accounts under the name of Cu, Chua, Sy and Aguilar.

“The aforesaid banks, insurance companies and financing company are directed to submit to this court and to the Anti-Money Laundering Council within 24 hours from receipt of the freeze order, a detailed return on the freeze order specifying all pertinent and relevant information on all frozen bank accounts, including all related accounts wherever the same may be found,” the CA said.

Co, or Wu Tuan Yuan, 51, is from Fujian, China, who runs drug operations inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City, where he has been serving a life sentence since 2002. (See In The Know on this page.)

“Through call and messages to associates, Wu Tuan Yuan manages to control the sale and distribution of drugs in numerous areas (Laguna, Cebu, Cotabato, Butuan, Ozamiz, Zamboanga, Salvador and Marawi City),” the CA said.

Deals on iPhones, Blackberry

The transactions, mostly done through consignment, were traced by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s forensic extraction team from two iPhones and a Blackberry confiscated from Co when the Bureau of Corrections conducted a surprise search at NBP on May 25, 2016.

Co’s drug syndicate and the involvement of Blue Oceanic, Roger Chua, Yiyan Su and Rogelyn Trading were confirmed by Kerwin Espinosa, a confessed drug dealer in Central Visayas.

In an affidavit, Espinosa said that Co was the first to use him as distributor when he was jailed in Cebu City in 2005 and that his first transactions were coursed through a BDO account of a hog and poultry supply firm.

A year after he was released in 2010, Espinosa said that he resumed his drug dealings with Co and that he was referred to Co’s cohort Chua using Blue Oceanic and Rogelyn Trading’s bank accounts to launder drug money.

This was further corroborated by a government asset inside NBP, Nonilo A. Arile, and fellow NBP inmate Engelberto A. Durano, a friend of the late Central Visayas drug lord Jeffery “Jaguar” Diaz.

Arile claimed that Co was the third biggest supplier of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) in NBP. Durano claimed that he was the one who introduced Co to Diaz.

AMLC castigated

The AMLC asked the CA to freeze the accounts after President Duterte castigated council officials, led by its chair, Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., for refusing to cooperate with Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II’s investigation of the drug lords in NBP.

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