A bill has been filed in the Senate allowing scrutiny of bank accounts, deposits and records of pushers, manufacturers, cultivators, importers and financiers of illegal drugs, in compliance with the country’s commitment under the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance, also known as the Vienna Convention.
Authored by Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson, Senate Bill 1025 empowers the courts and other competent authorities to “order bank, financial or commercial records [to be] made available or be seized.”
It authorizes the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to “seek written court orders for the examination of bank records of a person against whom probable cause is established.”
According to Lacson, drug pushers, manufacturers, cultivators, importers and financiers can no longer hide their ill-gotten money in banks once the bill is enacted into law, effectively stripping drug dealers their rights under the Bank Secrecy Act.
In filing the bill, the senator explains that the proposed law aims to “strengthen the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, it being “a proactive move to support the government’s unrelenting war against illegal drugs.”
“Experiences of the past tell us that our country’s high regard to the secrecy of bank deposits results to law enforcers’ limited authority in terms of confiscation and forfeiture of money or proceeds of the sale or trade of illegal drugs,” Lacson said of the bill, titled “An Act Authorizing the Examination of Bank Deposits, Accounts and Records of Pushers, Manufacturers, Cultivators, Importers and Financiers of Dangerous Drugs, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 9165 and for Other Purposes.”
The bill provides that special divisions of the Court of Appeals (CA) issuing such court orders shall be designated by the Supreme Court, one each for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
While the written order by the authorizing division of the CA, the original ex-parte application and the written authorizations from the heads of the PDEA, PNP or the NBI shall be “deemed classified information,” the bill grants the person whose bank accounts have been examined or frozen has “the right to be informed of the acts done by the authorities.”
It further provides that bank data and information obtained via the examination of records shall be deposited with the authorizing division of the CA in a sealed envelope or package, and orders that the sealed envelope or package shall not be opened unless authorized in writing by the authorizing division of the CA.
Lacson, likewise, warned it “shall be unlawful for any person, police officer or custodian of the bank data and information obtained after examination of deposits, placements, trust accounts, assets and records to copy, to remove, delete, expunge, incinerate, shred or destroy in any manner the items enumerated above in whole or in part under any pretext whatsoever.”
The senator affirmed that all information acquired from the examination of the bank deposits shall not be used in the prosecution of offenses not related to the antidrug law. “Anyone who copies, removes, deletes, expunges or destroys such items may be penalized with imprisonment from six to 12 years,” he warned.
Lacson added that any law-enforcement official or judicial authority who fails to notify in writing shall face six to eight years in jail.
Moreover, he said, unauthorized or malicious examination of bank data may net 10 to 12 years, in jail. Bank officials and employees defying a court-authorized examination face imprisonment of 10 to 12 years as well. Similarly, false statements or misrepresentation of facts may net 10 to 12 years in jail.
The Lacson bill directs that seized, sequestered and frozen bank deposits and assets shall be deemed as property held in trust by the bank or financial institution for the person and the government while the investigation or trial is ongoing.
“If the person is found innocent or is acquitted,” Lacson said the seizure will be deemed lifted and the bank deposits deemed released. “But if the person is convicted, the seized assets are forfeited in favor of the government.”
He added that unjustified refusal or delay in restoring the seized assets may net 10 to 12 years in jail. Loss, misuse, diversion or dissipation of seized assets may net 10 to 12 years in jail.
The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), meanwhile, admitted that illegal drugs have victimized 4.8 million Filipinos nationwide.
DDB Chairman Felipe Rojas, citing the agency’s 2015 nationwide survey, said some 4.8 million, aged between 10 and 69, are lifetime users or those who have used drugs at least once in their lifetime.
With Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz