By Romie A. Evangelista

Russian authorities have begun remitting to the National Police the 105,000 euros they seized from retired Gen. Eliseo de la Paz last October in Moscow.

The first remittance involving 10,000 euros was sent to the LandBank account of the National Police, De la Paz said, citing a report from Supt. Samuel Rodriguez, special disbursing officer of the police 14th finance division.

The money had to be returned in installments probably because of some banking regulations in Russia that limit the amount of money transfers to another country, De la Paz said.

His Russian lawyer, Alex Binetskiy, was authorized by the Russian government to work for the return of the money to the Philippines? police after it ?cleared? the retired general of any liability for failing to declare that much euros in his possession.

Chief Supt. Reynaldo Llanada, chief of the police Finance Service, earlier confirmed the return of a portion of the euros. The money has been deposited in a LandBank branch in Metro Manila, Llanada said.

Binetskiy, who maintains a law firm in Moscow and in Germany, served as counsel for De la Paz and his wife Maria Fe, after they were detained by Russian Customs authorities for questioning over the source of the undeclared euros. The De la Pazes were with a group that included retired Director Jaime Caringal and his wife, and Cynthia Verzosa, wife of ChiefJesus Verzosa.

The return of the euros came after Verzosa gave De la Paz an ultimatum until the end of the month to ensure the return of the full amount of the seized euros or face a court case.

?We issued a demand letter to Gen. De la Paz, gave him up to the end of the month to return the full amount. Otherwise, we will file civil charges against him for collection of money,? Verzosa said.

Any expenses to be incurred in the process of transferring the money from Russia to the Philippines would have to be shouldered by De la Paz, Verzosa said.

The National Police Commission had given De la Paz until April 2009 to return the full amount.