Romualdo Agarrado — who worked as customer service head of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City from Mar 16, 2015 to Feb 17, 2016 — claimed that last Feb 5 he personally saw a total of PHPP20 million cash placed in a paper bag being loaded to the car of bank branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito. Agarrado has since been transferred to another RCBC branch in Makati.
READ: PH at center of US$81-million money laundering scandal, Senate to probe
Agarrado made the disclosure at the resumption of the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the alleged money laundering scheme that slipped through the Philippine financial system. Hackers had managed to steal US$81 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The money had belonged to the Bangladesh Central Bank.
It is believed that the PHP20 million cash referred to by Agarrado could be part of the US$81-million stolen funds.
Agarrado’s detained narrative was documented in an Inquirer.net article by Maila Ager.
Agarrado said last Feb 5 “inward remittance in the name of businessman William Go” had come in. At around 5pm that day, the branch’s assistant manager, Angela Torres, requested PHP20 million from the cash center.
By 5:30pm, the armored car arrived from the cash center. Agarrado said he and Torres counted the money and then transferred the cash to the teller.
Agarrado then related, “Between 6:30 [and] 6:45 p.m., the teller placed the money in a box, counted it, and then put the cash in branch manager Maia Deguito’s room. That time BM Maia was outside the branch, I think she was talking to somebody on the cellphone.”
After that, Agarrado said Jovy Morales, the bank messenger, then transferred the money from the box to a paper bag before loading it to Deguito’s vehicle with the help of Torres.
Agarrado emphasized, “Jovy Morales loaded [the money] to the vehicle of manager Maia Deguito. Morales was the one who loaded it and was assisted by Angela Torres.”
He added, “I could clearly see them because I was sitting on the table fronting the main door of the branch. It was made of glass so it could be clearly seen outside, even though it was 6:30pm or a quarter to 7pm already, the lighting was clear inside the branch.”
