The Philippine National Police (PNP) has sought the assistance of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in getting sufficient information on the flow of money that was used in the assassination plan on broadcast journalist Percival Mabasa.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the AMLC assistance will focus more on the bank deposits made on the account of self-confessed gunman Joel Escorial and other people tagged in the killing of Mabasa, more known as Percy Lapid.
"We formally requested the AMLC to help us conduct a financial investigation because the self-confessed gunman has already surrendered his passbook and he has also given authorization to check his transactions in his account, so that is what we requested," said Fajardo.
"It may help us trace the people who deposited with him this P550,000 that went into his account," she added.
Escorial disclosed that they were paid P550,000 for the successful hit job on Mabasa, P140,000 of it was deposited to his account.
Fajardo said they will also seek the assistance of the court that will handle the case of Mabasa to look into other bank accounts that may have been used.
"For huge sums of money that were deposited to the account, we have to file a petition before the Court of Appeals to allow us to get from the respective banks to identify that there was a transaction and it was used to deposit the money in our gunman's account)," Fajardo said.
Aside from Fajardo, other names that came out in the investigation in the Mabasa killing were Crisanto Villamor, brothers Israel and Edmon Dimaculangan, and a certain Orlando from Batangas.
Police earlier said that Escorial also disclosed more names, which prompted them to file a supplemental affidavit on the case.'