The corrupt are terrorists; AMLC seize their assets now

At the Oct. 22, 2025 Senate committee hearing to grant extraordinary powers to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, a debate ensued between former Senate president Frank Drilon and former Chief Justice Reynato Puno over the grant of such powers.

Drilon wanted the ICI to be merely a fact-finding body with no power to prosecute, freeze assets or deposits of suspects, nor issue hold departure orders (HDOs).

On HDOs, Drilon was adamant. “I would not agree that we place this in the hands of an administrative body,” Frank protested. “It must be a judicial determination because it involves the rights of individuals to travel, the right to abode. HDO is a very powerful power of government, and to allow it – it must be a judicial finding.” He also doubted whether the ICI should be given the power of contempt in case witnesses or resource persons refuse to cooperate. Flood-gate’s biggest criminals, the spouses Curlee and Sarah Discaya, have refused to cooperate with the ICI.

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary remedies,” countered former SC chief Puno. “As soon as these extraordinary times will be gone, when normalcy will again prevail, it is easy for Congress to get back all these powers,” he assured.

Three anti-terrorism laws enable the government to grant the ICI powers it wants for it to be effective in ferreting out and punishing the culprits behind the P1-trillion flood-gate – the biggest single act of corruption, the biggest syndicated stealing of taxpayers’ money disguised as flood control money.

The money was stolen by ranking officials led by leaders of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, in tandem with corrupt engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways, corrupt private contractors and corrupt functionaries of key government agencies like the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission Audit.

In just three years, from 2022 to 2025, P1 trillion was stolen by the syndicate, at the rate of P50 billion thievery per day. This is an extraordinary act of larceny of people’s money, necessitating extraordinary measures. Up to 200 are involved.

Today, exactly three months after President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. exposed flood-gate in his State of the Nation Address and two months and 17 days after the Sept. 11, 2025 EO creating ICI, no one has been formally charged, no one has been arrested and no one has been jailed. Why? No one exactly knows why.

Yet, the Philippines has about 24 anti-corruption laws, some of them 70 years old. And government cannot act? Maybe, a different set of laws should have been applied.

These are the three anti-terrorism laws – Republic Act 9372 (The Human Security Act of 2007), RA 10168 (Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012) and RA 11479 of July 2020 (Anti-Terrorism Act).

The government should simply declare the corrupt as terrorists and corruption as an act of terrorism.

RA 9372 defines terrorism as “sowing and creating a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand.”

Flood-gate involves waylaying funds ostensibly intended to control massive flooding in vulnerable areas of the country. Under President BBM, there were 5,500 such projects which were either built below standard or were not built at all (ghost projects). This failure has caused widespread and ordinary fear among the populace because of the imminence of massive flooding.

The Philippines again topped the rankings as the most climate-vulnerable country in the world, according to the 2025 World Risk Index, with Filipino communities and health systems suffering from flooding, typhoons and rising climate-sensitive diseases, says Wikipedia.

RA 10168 (which defines the crime of terrorism financing) has provisions on seizure of assets of terrorists, like the flood-gate suspects, through the Anti-Money Laundering Council:

AMLC is authorized to investigate: (a) any property or funds that are in any way related to financing of terrorism or acts of terrorism; (b) property or funds of any person or persons in relation to whom there is probable cause to believe that such person or persons are committing or attempting or conspiring to commit, or participating in or facilitating the financing of terrorism or acts of terrorism as defined herein.

Despite the provisions of Republic Act 1405 “Law on Secrecy of Bank Deposits,” as amended; Republic Act 6426, the “Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines,” as amended; Republic Act 8791, “The General Banking Law of 2000” and other laws, the AMLC is authorized to inquire into or examine deposits and investments with any banking institution or non-bank financial institution and their subsidiaries and affiliates without a court order.

The AMLC, per Court of Appeals order, can “freeze without delay” from 20 days to six months: “(a) property or funds that are in any way related to financing of terrorism or acts of terrorism; or (b) property or funds of any person, group of persons, terrorist organization or association, in relation to whom there is probable cause to believe that they are committing or attempting or conspiring to commit, or participating in or facilitating the commission of financing of terrorism or acts of terrorism.”

Under RA 11479 (Human Security Act of 2007), the three major acts of terrorism are acts intended to:

a) cause death or serious bodily injury to any person, or endangers a person’s life;

b) cause extensive damage or destruction to a government or public facility, public place or private property;

c) cause extensive interference with, damage or destruction to critical infrastructure.

Critical infrastructure is defined as “an asset or system, whether physical or virtual, so essential to the maintenance of vital societal functions or to the delivery of essential public services that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on national defense and security, national economy, public health or safety.”

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