At the bilateral meeting held on Thursday in Busan, President Aquino and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak discussed the case of Manuel Amalilio; the suspect in a multibillion-peso estafa controversy in which thousands of Filipino investors were victimized.
While Aquino opted not to delve into details about the discussion, he did describe it as as “a nice development.”
Amalilio escaped to Sabah in 2012, after running a Ponzi scheme by which he fooled as many as 15,000 Filipinos to invest their money into his company, Aman Futures Group.
He was apprehended in Kota Kinabalu in 2013 for possession of a phony Philippine passport. In Malaysia, the alleged embezzler goes by the Mohammad Suffan Saaid.
A Kota Kinabalu court sentenced him to two years in prison Amalilio, but is now ordering his release.
The court has likewise denied the Philippine government’s request for Amalilio’s extradition to the Philippines, in order for him to face the charges for his criminal activity.
The Department of Justice has vowed to exert all efforts to reverse the Malaysian court’s decision.