Diliman Way: No need for foreign investments

“The Philippines is the richest country in the world.”

– US President George W. Bush

If the statement of President Bush is true, then we don’t need foreign investments. We must only find the money so it can be put to good use for the people of this country.

The money: Where is the money that President Bush talked about? I hazard an idea – it is in local and international banks all over the word and in caves which have buried hidden Yamashita treasures. Why do I say that? Well, our clients who are either trustees of President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (FM) who have bank deposits in our country and many banks all over the world as well hidden treasures of Yamashita buried in as many as about a hundred burial grounds in the Philippines.

The Documents: Let us talk first about bank deposits. Are there documents attesting to their existence? Yes – the originals are with our clients and the Xerox copies are with us. Do I vouch for the authenticity of all the bank documents? No! For some – yes! Why? I have not verified from all the banks about their existence because of our specific experiences with two local banks and a foreign government.

Specific experiences: The first incident involves a client which had a FIVE HUNDRED MILLION (P500,000,000.00) PESOS deposit in a major bank. The client informed us that before she went to our office, she met with the Vice President who told her that she can withdraw her deposit subject to this condition – that she can only withdraw SIXTY (60%) percent as the FORTY (40%) percent should go to the bank. The client was dissatisfied with that arrangement and that is the reason why she came to our office to ask whether she can withdraw it with nothing going to the bank.

I told the client the bank will not consent to that – probably it will agree if it gets TEN to TWENTY (10 % to 20 %) percent of the deposit. So on that note, I accompanied our client to the bank. I met the Vice President who previously talked to our client and he told me to write a letter so everything will have a paper trail Consistent with advice, I wrote the desired letter to the Bank. One week later, the Bank replied with the note – the account does not exist.

Another client also approached us to help him withdraw another amount from another account in the same Bank. Initially I was told that the lawyer handling the account left the Bank and went to the NLRC. Since the Chief Legal Counsel of the same Bank is a friend of my daughter who graduated from UP Law, I went to see her and I was told that she could not release the deposit to our client as there are other claimants.

This concerns a major local bank.

Recent incidents: Three or four months ago, a woman representing another woman brought us bank documents signed by the President and Vice President in a major local bank certifying that the account exists in the bank with statement of account stating that the woman has a deposit in a major local bank in the amount of ONE TRILLION THREE HUNDRED BILLION ($1,300,000,000,000.00) US DOLLARS. We wrote an open letter to the President and like our first letter, it was ignored by the President.

Still later, a client representing another woman brought us documents signed by no less than President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (FM) and the Governor of a Central Bank of a neighboring country attesting to a deposit in her account of TWENTY-ONE TRILLION ($21,000,000,000,000.00) US DOLLARS.

Hoping that a friend of ours who has access to the Palace could help our possible client, we approached him with the documents. A week passed, he did not call us. We called him and he replied his connection with the other country said no Filipino had such an account with the designated bank. He replied though that a Filipino has TWENTY FIVE BILLION ($25,000,000,000.00) US DOLLARS in the said Bank.

A few days later another client brought the TRILLIONS US DOLLARS documents to his lawyer friend who after a week confirmed the existence of the account but asked for scanned copies of the documents since the ones furnished him were Xerox copies. I told our client to ask his friend to give us scanned copies of the documents but he was told two weeks later that his friend got a more influential person who could facilitate the withdrawal of such deposit. I don’t know the identity of that influential person. Is it PBB Marcos? I still don’t know.

Other billions of accounts: We have a client for over fifteen years who has documents and list of accounts in local banks. Name any major local bank and her husband has billions of cash and several metric tons of gold in it. Why could she not withdraw from the accounts? The reason is very simple – banks deny their existence except when powerful friends of the bank owners confirm the existence of the accounts. The condition for withdrawal is huge share of the banks in the huge amounts.

So the problem is the bank owners. They want to keep the money for themselves to expand their empires – banks, airlines, malls, subdivisions, telecommunications, condominium buildings, resorts and whatever fires their creative and criminal minds. This is on the assumption that the money and the metric tons of gold exist.

So, how do we recover all these – if at all they exist? Here are my approaches to the problem.

Solutions: The first is in the hands of PBB Marcos. He should do these – 1) Call all those who claim to have accounts in the various local banks; 2) Let them produce all the documents to him or his designated representatives; 3) Call all Presidents of the banks where the account exist; 4) If they exist, determine the source of the deposits; 5) Once it is determined that the accounts exist, enter into a memorandum of agreement with the holder of the accounts on the sharing of the deposits of the holder and the government; 6) If the deposits do not exist, investigate the clams and file the appropriate criminal charges so, figuratively with poetic license, they can hang in the nearest Meralco lamp posts.

The second solution is in the hands of either of the two Houses of Congress to do these – 1) Conduct a full blown investigation with complete media coverage inviting the claimants of deposits and their lawyers, Presidents of all banks where deposits are claimed to exist, the Governor the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP); 2) Once the investigation is complete, enact the necessary legislation and refer the matter for criminal prosecution of whoever are the culprits.

The third solution is for those who claim to have deposits in these banks is to write letters to these banks and furnishing copies to the following – the Governor of the Central Bank, the Secretary of Justice, both Houses of Congress and all media outlets, both domestic and foreign.

Why: The country needs the money to alleviate the condition of the poor and underprivileged, to initiate and continue with policies and programs to make life for our people a thousand times better, to get rid of foreign investments and foreign domination, to have a humane society where the free are just and the just are free and where there is equality before the law and no Filipino will be hungry and live like a rat and die simply because he is poor.

These are achievable if we do what is right as suggested.

Next: The succeeding article will detail where else are the claimed deposits in cash and gold explaining the sources of their claimed origin.