New freeze order issued vs Ampatuan assets

Following reports that the Ampatuan clan is trying to withdraw money from their bank accounts in Cotabato City, a new freeze order, this time from a Manila court, has been issued preventing the powerful family from utilizing their assets.   The freeze order will be in effect for 20 days, according to the 33-page provisional asset preservation order issued by Executive Judge Marino dela Cruz Jr. of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 221 last Friday, Dec. 2.   In the order, the judge said there was "probable cause" that the bank accounts and properties covered by the freeze order were "related to unlawful activities" in violation of the Anti-Plunder Act and Section 3 (i) of Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.   The court barred several individuals, including 28 Ampatuan clan members and a number of bank firms, from conducting or facilitating "any transaction, withdrwal, deposit, transfer, removal, conversion, concealment, or other disposition of the subject bank accounts, real properties, motor vehicles and firearms."    "The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is directed to cause the immediate implementation of this Order through the proper authorities," the court said.   The court also scheduled a summary hearing on the asset preservation on Tuesday and Wednesday.   The order was issued on the day the first freeze order lapsed.   The first freeze order was issued by the Court of Appeals in June and extended in July. It covers 597 bank accounts, 142 firearms, 132 motor vehicles, and 113 houses and lots of 28 Ampatuan clan members.   The court issued the 20-day freeze order after the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) succeeded in establishing that the Ampatuans may have used the accounts and properties in committing fraud, such as amassing up to P1 billion in ill-gotten wealth.   Several prominent members of the Ampatuan clan are currently facing 57 counts of murder before a Quezon City court for the massacre of 57 people — 32 of them journalists — in Maguindanao on November 23, 2009. A 58th victim, Reynaldo Momay, has yet to be found.   Almost two years into the murder trial and after more than 70 prosecution witnesses have been presented, only two — clan patriarch Andal Sr and son Andal Jr — of the eight arrested prominent clan members have been arraigned.   A total of 95 suspects have been arrested since the massacre, 12 of them nabbed last year. Authorities are still hunting down 101 suspects.   The AMLC investigation of the Ampatuan assets stemmed from a money laundering complaint filed by several relatives of the massacre victims in November 2010.   Over the weekend, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism quoted sources as claiming that two lawyers from the Ampatuan clan tried withdrawing money from a bank in Cotabato City.   It was not immediately clear if the lawyers succeeded in making any bank transactions, but Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo already ordered policemen to secure the bank and verify if any transaction took place. — Mark D. Merueñas/KBK, GMA News