Ping wants to freeze assets of 5 'BGC Boys'

Public works officials laundered hundreds of millions of pesos in kickbacks from ghost or substandard flood control projects by placing them as bets at casinos, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said yesterday as he vowed to move for the freezing of their assets by alerting the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to their activities.

- MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB and NEIL JAYSON SERVALLOS

During the continuation of his privilege speech "Flooded Gates of Corruption," Lacson accused Bulacan district engineers Henry Alcantara, Brice Ericson Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, Arjay Domasig and contractor Edrick San Diego of using aliases and fake IDs to gamble with their kickbacks.

And instead of playing to win, they would let themselves lose a small amount, then immediately cash out their chips to make their illegal kickbacks appear as legitimate casino winnings.

Lacson called the money laundering scheme the "casino spree" of the "BGC Boys" or the Bulacan Group of Contractors, as they have been known to casino employees.

"Are they really just lucky to win at the same time, or it's just a money laundering scheme? We received a report and we're still validating it - that their claim of winning is fake," Lacson said in Filipino.