Manuel Amalilio. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The alleged investment scam mastermind Manuel Amalilio can be arrested if he tries to leave Malaysia because he remains on the Interpol watch list on the request of the Philippine government, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Thursday.
“He may have been freed [by a Malaysian court] but his name is still on the Interpol list and we will ask Interpol not to exclude him from their watch list,” De Lima told reporters.
As far as the Philippines is concerned, Amalillo, who is accused of running a Ponzi scam that victimized at least 15,000 people in the Visayas and Mindanao, is a fugitive from justice, she said. Amalilio fled to Malaysia in 2013.
“He was charged here and there are outstanding warrants against him in several cases. That’s why we had Interpol put him in their watch list because he is a fugitive. You can never tell where he will go, maybe to other countries, so at least Interpol can alert us if if he leaves Malaysia,” De Lima said.
Amalilio was freed in Malaysia early this week after serving time for passport fraud. A court in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, threw out the Philippine request for his extradition after the Malaysian Home Ministry withdrew its consent. Jerome Aning
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