Warrant of arrest issued for businessman-pal of jailed ex-president who crippled the Philippine Stock Exchange

By Asian Pacific News Service

A businessman, whose company was in the centre of a massive stock fraud which eventually led to the downfall of former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, is believed to be hiding in Canada.

Dante Tan, the owner of the Asian gambling firm BW Resources, has reportedly fled after being accused of violating securities laws in a stock manipulation scandal that led to the near collapse of the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Earlier this month, a regional trial court in Pasig City, Philippines issued a warrant for the arrest of the associate of the jailed Estrada.

Tan, 53, has not been seen in public since Estrada was ousted from office in January last year, Philippine media reported.

One newspaper, quoting a Filipino police officer, reported that Tan is believed to be in Canada. Tan also failed to attend a Senate ethics committee hearing where he was supposed to testify.

After the warrants of arrest were issued, Philippine Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said the authorities could not locate Tan. Tan also did not show up to post bail. "Nobody seems to have seen him around. We are still trying to verify if Tan is indeed here," Perez told reporters.

Immigration Canada sources in Ottawa told The Asian Pacific Post that Tan obtained Canadian landed immigrant status sometime in the early nineties.

Questions are also being asked why Tan was issued a special U.S. travel visa last year by the American consular office in Manila. Government officials told The Post that the America visa stamped 'USNIB' was issued after the BW scandal broke and travel restrictions were placed on Tan.

In February of 2001, Tan attempted to sneak out of the Philippines via a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong but that trip was halted by immigration officers.

A spokesman for the Philippine embassy in Ottawa said they are looking into reports of Tan coming to Canada. However, he said, they had no official communique about the case.

Tan began his career as a small town accountant and tire dealer in Quezon province, south of Manila.

His friendship with Estrada dates back to the latter's campaign for the Senate in 1987.

Tan formed Best World Gaming and Entertainment Corp. (BWGE) in early 1998 and applied for a license to operate on-line bingo nationwide from the Philippine state-owned gambling agency and casino operator, Pagcor.

He was turned down.

After Estrada became president, Tan tried again. In December 1998, he finally got it.

The shares of BW Resources Corp. soared more than 5,000 percent during an eight-month period ending in October 1999 amid information that Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho would take over the Manila-based company.

The shares plummeted the day after it was announced that Ho had taken a minority stake and been elected company chairman.

As the shares collapsed Ho found himself under fierce attack from the Philippine Catholic Church, which opposes gambling, and from anti-crime activists, who accused him of having links with triad gangsters.

Ho's adversaries leaked confidential Canadian intelligence reports to the Philippine media about the Macau casino king's connections to organized crime.

Among the reports was a page from the RCMP's Asian Organized Crime Roster which listed Ho as a leader of the notorious Kung Lok Triad.

Ho has denied any involvement with organized crime and took out full-page ads in the Philippine newspapers denouncing the Canadian intelligence reports.

Weeks later as an investigation into BW Resources began to unfold, the former Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief charged that Estrada tried to pressure him to exonerate his pal Tan while a former finance secretary said that Estrada admitted profiting from his shares in BW Resources.

Allegations of Estrada's involvement in this and other alleged acts of corruption eventually touched off a military-backed popular uprising that toppled Estrada and installed his vice-president, Gloria Arroyo, in his place. Estrada is now facing charges of plundering the Philippines. Tan is not the first crony of Estrada who is thought to have fled to Canada.

Last August, The Post reported that two Filipino police officers wanted in connection with murder, drug smuggling and helping move millions for Estrada, had fled to Canada.

The two, identified as Senior Superintendents Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao, used fake passports to sneak out of the Philippines via Mactan International Airport in Cebu on a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong en route to the United States and later Canada.

They remain at large.