COPS SEIZE OVER P112-M FOUND IN SAFETY VAULTS OF SUSPECTED BATAAN POGO FIRM

OVER P112 million in cash stored in the safety vaults of a company in Bagac, Bataan suspected  to be involved in illegal POGO activities on Wednesday were seized by agents of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission.

PNP-CIDG director Brig. Gen. Nicolas D. Torre III  said the  forced opening of 12 of the 14 safes were made on the strength of a search warrant issued by Executive Judge Hermenegildo Dumlao II of  the Malolos City Regional Trial Court Branch 81.

Torre said they served the search warrant at the Central One Compound in Bgy. Parac in Bagac based on the authority given them by the court to access the 12 safety vaults located at Buildings 3,5 and 7 of the compound.

He said the operation is part of their ongoing effort to build-up a case against “Boss Kalbo” or “Chinese Boss” for violation of Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 as amended by RA 10364 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012.

Local policemen assisted the PNP-CIDG and the PAOCC in serving the search warrants issued last November 18.

Torre said the operation began at around 2:50 p.m. Wednesday and ended at 1 a.m. Thursday.

Seized during the operation were assorted documents, vouchers, keys, foreign passports, security tokens, and various denominations of foreign currencies, including Malaysian Ringgit, Singapore Dollars, US Dollars and Philippine Peso amounting to P112,570,495.

The recovered pieces of evidence were brought to the CIDG Anti-Organized Crime Unit office in Camp Crame  for temporary safekeeping.