Police seize P112.5M cash, passports at raided Bataan BPO

Police seized P112.5 million in cash and foreign passports in the safety vaults of Central One Bataan, a BPO firm in Bagac, Bataan on Nov. 20, 2024.

Updated on November 22, 2024 at 11:23 a.m.

MANILA, Philippines — Police seized P112.5 million in cash and foreign passports in the safety vaults of Central One Bataan, the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm raided by law enforcement last October 31.

In a press briefing at Camp Crame on Thursday, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said officers opened 12 safety vaults at Central One’s offices in Bagac, Bataan on Wednesday under a new search warrant.

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) raided Central One Bataan PH’s offices last October under a search warrant related to alleged trafficking violations.

READ: Authorities raid Pogo hub in Bataan BPO company

PAOCC insisted Central One was fronting for an illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator, saying it found evidence of gambling software and black market banking.

READ: ‘Pogo hub’ in Bataan seems into ‘black market banking’ – Paocc

Central One denied the claim, saying that it was a BPO company operating under a license by the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB)

AFAB confirmed this in a statement to INQUIRER.net on November 1.

Hon. Hermenegildo Dumlao of the Regional Trial Court – Third Judicial Region Branch 81 in Malolos City, Bulacan issued the follow-up warrant last Monday.

CIDG said the warrant targeted the vaults linked to a case against an alias “Boss Kalbo” or “Chinese Boss”, alleged to have violated the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Acts.

Operatives broke open the vaults across three buildings in the Central One compound between 2:50 p.m. on November 20 and 1 a.m. on November 21.

The CIDG recovered and took custody of a sum of P112,570,495 from the vault, in addition to P40 million found during the initial raid, according to Fajardo.

The cash found in the vault was in denominations of Malaysian Ringgit, Singapore Dollars, United States Dollars, and Philippine Pesos, CIDG said in a statement on Friday.

In a message to INQUIRER.net on Thursday, Central One legal counsel Cherry Anne dela Cruz said the money in the vaults was for salaries.

Fajardo refuted this, saying “The PAOCC, the PNP, and our other associates here believe that with such a large sum of money, we know salaries today aren’t given in cash; it all goes through the automated teller machine.”

“How come they have hundreds of millions of pesos in their possession? So we believe that these are proceeds or profit out of the said illegal activities, including scamming,” she added.

Moreover, Fajardo reported that operatives seized foreign passports, security tokens, vouchers, and assorted documents from the BPO company’s offices.

“This would somehow prove that the administrators of Central One are withholding these foreign passports. Supposedly, this is not necessary,” she said.

“If I were legitimately working there, these passports should be in my possession because these are individual passports. How come a company is withholding these passports? That will be subject to investigation,” she added.

CIDG said the confiscated cash, passports, and other documents were transferred to the group’s Anti-Organized Crime Unit at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

It added that the items will be returned to the court with jurisdiction of the case as part of the ongoing legal proceedings.

The PNP did not provide a breakdown of the documents seized, the nationalities of the foreign passports confiscated, nor the amount of every foreign currency found.

Dela Cruz dismissed the PNP’s remarks as “baseless speculations,” saying “Money per se is not illegal. Same with expired passports.”

“It is better to face the allegations in court, instead of the court of public opinion,” she added.