THE United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) on Tuesday said the manual transfer of millions of cash among its branches “is a normal process”, thus, there is nothing unusual on the P32 million cash that was intercepted by the police at the Cagayan de Oro port last Sunday evening.
In a statement, the bank said it was “aware of the transfer”, citing that “it is part of the normal procedure to move excess cash from one cash center to another”.
“The movement of the cash within the bank’s cash centers is an internal procedure and, as such, it does not need prior approval from the Bangko Sentral,” it added.
“The bank’s legal team in Cagayan de Oro is coordinating with port authorities to clarify the misunderstanding,” it said.
The funds were intercepted from three people, who identified themselves as UCPB employees, while they were about to board a Cebu-bound passenger vessel.
Reports quoting the National Police’s Northern Mindanao Maritime Group commander, Senior Supt. Rustom Duran, said the cash and its bearers were intercepted after the Coast Guard received an intelligence report from Task Force Oro that an armored van full of cash was on its way to Cagayan de Oro City.
Police Maritime Group 10 and the Coast Guard are part of Task Force Oro. Other members are the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) police and the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office Station 5.
After the task force released the intelligence report to its members, an advisory was issued to all personnel assigned at the port and at around 8 p.m., the PPA lookout saw an unmarked green armored van that was about to park in the port premises.
The three persons inside the van requested for porters and unloaded four boxes, which authorities subjected to x-ray inspection.
Result of the x-ray inspection showed that the boxes were full of cash, thus, the authorities took the three persons into custody.
1 comment
something fishy. . . . why it stated documents instead of cash. . . . commercial airplanes are the usual mode of transporting cash . . . 30 million now is just a drop in a bucket. . . but its worth to be investigated. . . .