Romualdez linked firms bought Forbes property — AMLC

A financial investigator from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) said Thursday that the property in Forbes Park, Makati believed to be owned by former House Speaker Martin Romualdez was bought through a company prosecutors alleged was used as a financial conduit of the lawmaker.

Atty. Jan Mark Busa, called to the witness stand in the ongoing bail hearing of Romualdez, told the Sandiganbayan Third Division that Tamarind 30 in Forbes Park was purchased by Golden Pheasant Holdings Corporation through the help of funds drawn from Samchan Foreign Exchange Corporation.

Busa said that the property was bought through the use of 21 managers’ checks amounting to around P1.5 billion which Samchan forwarded to the Ocampo, Manalo, Valdez and Lim Law Firm (OMLAW).

OMLAW had been mentioned in previous Senate inquiries into the multibillion peso flood control scandal, as the firm that had issued a vacate notice for the previous owner of 30 Tamarind.

The AMLC investigator explained that based on their examination of transaction records the cash flow for the purchase of the property had gone from Samchan to OMLAW to Golden Pheasant Holdings Corporation.

Busa further stated that with such findings, they had found reasonable ground to deem the transactions which led to the eventual buy out of 30 Tamarind were related to “unlawful activities.”

Asked about his observation by Third Division chairperson Associate Justice Karl Miranda, Busa said that his main considerations for the finding were details that came from the Office of the Ombudsman and the records that they had in their database.

“For this findings, your Honor, we considered the Information and transactions as appearing,” the witness said.

“Your Honor, the evaluation when I came out with these findings, it was taken into consideration again the allegation, if I do not have any allegation of Samchan receiving funds, it would not appear as suspicious,” he later added.

Busa would clarify that the reason behind the need for the law enforcement authorities like the Ombudsman was the lack of manpower that the AMLC had to look through the voluminous covered transaction reports that they received from bank institutions.

It is worth recalling that the anti-graft body charged Romualdez with plunder along with former congressman Zaldy Co, a member of the lawmaker’s household staff, and Felicito Cristobal Guevarra, the president and chairman of Samchan Foreign Exchange Corporation.

Prosecutors alleged that the former House Speaker had conspired with all three accused to amass P7.4 billion in ill-gotten wealth from infrastructure projects of the government.

The complaint also stated that the funds had been funneled through dummy accounts and companies.

Romualdez no link to transactions

During the cross examination of Romualdez’s lawyers, Busa would state that their findings did not yield any information which links the lawmaker to the said transactions that led to the purchase of the Tamarind 30 property.

He also disclosed that the exchanges that the only dealings that Romualdez had were no transfer or deposits coming from contractors, and officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Similarly, Busa likewise said that he made no findings that inflows received by Romualdez were related to unlawful activity or the flood control scandal.

The AMLC would point out that there were observed peaks in the lawmaker’s transactions between a period of 2003 to 2007 and during the time that he was House Speaker.

Romualdez reportedly had total transactions of P3.9 billion from 2003 to 2007, a period Busa classified as prior to the lawmaker’s entry into politics.

As for 2022 to 2025, Romualdez reportedly had P4.5 billion in transactions.

His lawyers argued that the findings were proof that despite the findings, their client was still pending well within his financial capacity.

The bail hearing of the former House Speaker is set to resume on 19 November with the prosecution only having three remaining witnesses. His camp mentioned that it had reserved three to four trial dates for the presentation of its counter evidence.

Romualdez is currently detained at the New Quezon City Jail – Male Dormitory in Payatas.