By Fel V. Maragay

A top official of the Anti-Money Laundering Council was again summoned by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to answer allegation that he connived with former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante in the withdrawal of bank deposits linked to the fertilizer fund scam. Senate probers will resume hearing on the Bolante case on Jan. 20.

Senator Richard Gordon, committee chairman, said investigation showed that the council?s executive director Vicente Aquino even informed the banks that the Court of Appeals? freeze order on Bolante?s 32 bank accounts had been lifted. Aquino should instead have worked to have the freeze order extended, Gordon said.

Aquino admitted that he told the banks about the unfreezing of the Bolante accounts in answer to a query of Agapito Rene Conchu, a member of the Blue Ribbon oversight committee. Conchu called up the council executive director on Jan. 7 as part of the inquiry into the fertilizer fund mess, according to Aquino.

In a signed affidavit, Conchu said in their discussion of the Bolante accounts, Aquino told him that ?upon the lapse/expiration of the term of the freeze order granted by the Court of Appeals, the AMLC informed all the banks and financial institutions concerned of this fact.?

Gordon said what Aquino did was highly irresponsible because in effect he was telling the banks that they were now free to release the deposits from the Bolante accounts even if these were still under investigation by the AMLC and the Senate.

One bank account alone had a P130-million deposit supposedly traced to the Livelihood Corp. formerly headed by Bolante.

Gordon said what riled the senators more was that Aquino did not bother to inform them that the freeze order on the Bolante accounts were about to expire on Dec. 30.

?This is a very grave matter. They were the ones who informed the banks that the bank accounts could already be withdrawn.?

Gordon recalled that during the committee hearing on Dec. l0, Aquino testified that his office could not yet furnish its report on its investigation into the Bolante bank accounts because it was still in progress.

Aquino said the Bank Secrecy Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act prevented the council from divulging details about the Bolante accounts.

Gordon accused Aquino of misleading the committee for withholding the information that the CA freeze order was set to expire.

Gordon said had this vital information been shared by the AMLC officials, the committee would have advised the agency to request for an extension of the freeze order.

He said the council should have also petitioned the Court of Appeals to attach properties of Bolante as one of the legal tools available to them.

?And why is it that up to now, weeks after the unfreezing of the Bolante accounts, the AMLC still has not transmitted any report to the Blue Ribbon committee?? Gordon asked.