A court in Cebu province convicted a former security guard for money laundering for transacting ransom money through a bank.

In a statement on Thursday, the Anti-Money Laundering Council said Judge Toribio Quiwag of the Regional Trial Court in Lapu-Lapu City, Branch 27, convicted Alfredo Baclado on July 28, 2016 for money laundering and sentenced him to 7 to 14 years imprisonment and pay a fine of three million pesos.

But Baclado did not appear at his sentencing and authorities are looking for him and the four cohorts.

The case stemmed from the kidnapping of a Japanese in January 2003 by a fellow countryman, Baclado and four others in Lapu-Lapu city.

They demanded a ransom of six million yen or around three million pesos from the victim's relatives in Tokyo. Despite sending the money to Baclado’s bank account under the name “James Yap”, the Japanese killed the victim in February 2003. Baclado then killed the Japanese to keep the money for himself, the statement said.

Baclado was identified through photos in his account opening forms. The AMLC also traced the funds from the victim's daughter in Tokyo to Baclado’s bank account where it found 2.4 million pesos of the ransom intact. It was forfeited by the council in 2006 in a separate civil case and returned to the daughter. DMS