MANILA – Criminal charges were filed against a Taiwanese businessmen and his associates for melting assorted Philippine coins and extracting metals from the them for the manufacture of plumbing fixtures.
In the charge sheet filed before the government prosecutor’s office in suburban Quezon City, Metro Manila, the businessman was identified as Mun Tsung Liang, who owns a company bearing his name that manufactures plumbing and related materials.
Liang was accused, along with several company officials, of violating a presidential decree that prohibits and penalizes the defacement, mutilation, tearing, burning or destruction of Philippine bank notes and coins.
The complaint was filed by Undersecretary Antonio Villar, the head of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) whose men raided and seized recently from Liang’s factory in Caloocan several sacks of mutilated coins of different denominations
Villar said he filed the charges after the Central Bank of the Philippines certified that the finished plumbing accessories were made of bronze extracted from local coins, particularly the 25-centavo pieces.
Villar said the businessman has been making “a hell of a business out of our local currencies and in our own country at that.”
He disclosed that this time, he would like to see Liang convicted by the court and penalized for violating the law.
Villar recalled that the same complaint was filed against Liang three years ago before the Department of Justice when his company was still located at the export processing zone in the town of Rosario, Cavite province in Southern Luzon.
But for still unknown reasons, Villar said the complaint was dismissed despite the presence of enough evidence to establish the guilt of Liang and his associates.
According to Villar, Liang is also suspected of heading a big criminal syndicate that smuggles Philippine coins into neighboring countries like Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.
He said the smuggling has become “big business” because Philippine coins are much in demand abroad because their copper and nickel contents are used for the manufacture of assorted electronic spare parts.
Villar disclosed this was confirmed in late 2008 when PASG agents seized local coins equivalent to about $60,000, which were about to be exported to South Korea.
Villar added that the Central Bank is still conducting an inventory of the local coins to determine if there is a shortage as a result of the illegal activities of Liang and the smuggling syndicate.
He cited intelligence reports that most of the smuggled coins came from various banks through the help of unscrupulous employees believed to be in the payroll of the syndicate.
It is also possible, Villar said, that officials and employees at the “graft-ridden” Bureau of Customs are also in cahoots with the syndicate by facilitating the shipment of the smuggled coins out of the country.
Loading ...
Reader’s Views