Transcript of interview with Senate President ProTempore Ralph G. Recto
Blue Ribbon Hearing

Malinaw na ba po, Sir?

Wala pang final pero ang maliwanag ay may nawawalang 15 million na pwede sanang maibalik sa Bangladesh eventually. Ano lang naman kasi yan, either nasa PhilRem o na kay Wong.

Sir may nabanggit kayo kanina na may onsehan dito, base sa mga dokumento na binasa nyo galing sa PhilRem. Bakit ninyo nasabi ito Sir?

Well, number one, ngayon ko lang nakita yung mga resibong yan. Sinasabi ni Kim, maliwanag din na magkakaibigan lahat yung mga iyan. Maliwanag din na lahat ng delivery kasama si Kim Wong. At dito ngayon may dockumento, in two deliveries wala si Kim Wong. So anong nakikita nyo?

Parang mahirap paniwalaan yung testimonya. Madaling gawin yung mga resibong yan eh. Dahil unanguna yung mga pumirma wala dito at yung isa yung Mark(?), yung messenger. Wala rin dito.

May sakit?

May sakit.

Wala naman sa St. Luke's sir?

Hindi ko alam.

Pero sir, itong si Weikan Xu, naniniwala ba kayo na existing itong taong ito?

Posible. Oo, I think oo. May passport kasi.

Pero wala sa kanya ang pera? Palagay ko wala. Hindi sya. Ano lang yan, player lang yan. One of the junket operators. Mababa yun dito. Hindi main man yun dito.

Dito maliwanag sino ang nagbukas ng account. Yung Gao, yung Ding na kaibigan ni Wong. Kinausap si Maia. Nagbukas ng account, nabuksan yung account, dumating yung pera. Nirekomenda na PhilRem ang gagawa ng remittance from the 4 accounts. Pumunta kay William Go, kay William Go punta ng PhilRem.

3/4s of that money went to the casino na inaadmit na utos ni Wong kay Maia. Maia nag-utos sa Philrem, Philrem pumunta ngayon sa mga casino.

Pero yung cash na isang bilyon, yun yung hinahanap natin dito. May pumasok sa casino na cash, cash delivery lahat yun. Sinong nagbigay nun? PhilRem. Hindi ba, at tinatanggi na ni Maia that she didn't have anything to do with that. Kasi ang pagkaintindi ko dito dapat ang nag-uusap ay itong si Wong at si Philrem. Yun ang pagkaintindi ko dito. Kasi in the first, remember thay had dinner, all the three of them had dinner February 5.

Sir pwede po bang iturnover ang money to the Bangladesh bank? Hindi bay an pwedeng government to government transaction? Magdedesisyon lang ang AMLC regarding...

Hindi ko alam. There's a law, I suppose, that you must follow, di ba? They're objecting dun na agad nila kunin.

They're not objective. They want to get the money, naturally, understood. The one objecting is the lawyer na sinasabing--

Di po ba theres a process.

Precisely. That's what the lawyer is saying.

For example, in the other cases where drug money is used, tapos na, abandoned na yun.

I will get to that. I will study that later on. I don't think this is abandonment.

You and I can make our own judgments. Parang kumbaga if I were a judge, you look at the demeanor, you look at the testimony, you look at the credibility of the witnesses right? Naging clear ba?

Sa akin. Sa akin medyo clear.

Clear na what?

Saka na. I'll let you know. In my mind I have an idea. I have an idea, assessing what happened dito sa...I have a good idea of what happened.

Re: refusal to to point at each other

Mukhang nagka-onsehan nga diyan, eh. Maliwanag yun, sa tingin ko. Basta't meron 'yan, nandyan 'yan. More or less, 15 to 17 (million). Posibleng di pa lumalabas sa bansa 'yan. Wala pa kong nakikitang dokumento na lumabas na ng bansa.

Hindi alam kung kay Philrem?

I have a hunch there.

Nawawala nga, eh. Hindi pumasok sa casino, saan napunta yung perang 'yun?

Im basing it on the documents that I've seen. And the money trail, and all of that.

Ulitin ko lang, of 81 million, 61 went to the casinos through Philrem. Nasaan yung 20 na hindi pumasok sa casino? Nandoon yung ibang cash. Ang 15 ang hinahanap ko dito. yung 5, alam ko cash yun, tinatanggap ni Lim wong, binigay sa kanya. 500 million, yun yung sa 5.

Can you cite them in contempt?

Always, always. And it's a judgement call. Individually we would make that judgement. Individually, as members of the committee.

Re: Measures on bank secrecy

That needle will move, I suppose. To what extent, we don't know.

More restrictive banking laws?

One thing for sure, the protocol of banks will be looked into. Not everything is in the law. The regulators will have to take a look also, kung ano yung protocols that we should establish.

(question inaudible)

This was a point I tried to raise earlier. Their Central Bank already asked for assistance from our Central Bank. What did our Central Bank do? Did they act swiftly? Apparently, they acted slowly. Just like when the Bank of Bangladesh requested RCBC to hold the money, they failed that. And then the Central Bank of Bangladesh--or their representative--went to our AMLA, I think January 11. Is it so difficult for the AMLA to make a phone call to the regulators of the casinos. Is that difficult? One phone call.

So they didn't do that. And then the bank only found out through the Inquirer, I think February 9, as I recall from the testimony here.

And then March 1, at least there was already a freeze order by March 1. On March 10,11, it would appear na nahuli ng--pinafreeze ng casino. They were actually able to recover 107 million plus some cash. And then they caught the 18 or 19 players.

Sayang eh. Hindi lang yung they could've frozen more, but to look and have the papers of the culprits. Yes, he 19. Maybe the courts could've stopped them from leaving. I don't know as I don't know how their office works.

But that's the idea. Nahuli mo na, nandyan na yung 19. It was already in the paper, but they were still playing in the casino. February 29. At 10, they were raided unilaterally by the casino. That is the point, eh. Sayang naman. You caught those persons who were there already.