Since 2022 to date, a total of P518,480,814.39 worth of assets and properties representing proceeds of illegal drug activities, were subjected to civil forfeiture and covered with freeze order.
Out of the figure, P4,039,080.00 worth of parcels of land, motor vehicles and firearms belonging to drug money launderers were forfeited in favor of the government, while cash in bank accounts, vehicles and plots of lands amounting to P514,441,734.39 were either frozen or preserved.
The portions of said drug money were the subject of 28 money laundering cases referred by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) for financial investigation, and 41 cases filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The institutionalization of PDEA Deputized Anti-Money Laundering Council Financial Investigators or DAFIs – tasked to investigate monetary instruments such as bank accounts and insurance policies believed to be used to launder drug money, was a real shot in the arm for the country’s drug money laundering investigations previously done by a limited number of AMLC investigators.
Gathered by PDEA, pieces of evidence from predicate crimes are referred to the AMLC after establishing probable cause required in the filing of applications for bank inquiry, petitions for freeze orders, civil forfeiture cases and criminal complaints, all associated with money laundering.
The entrenchment of financial and money laundering investigation functions in its organizational thrust is PDEA’s contribution to the Philippines’ effort to exit the grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.
PDEA, in collaboration with AMLC, DOJ and other private and public entities, will continue to track down the trail of drug money and cut the flow of proceeds from sale of illegal drugs by arresting, forfeiting and freezing the assets of drug money launderers.
