Authorities in Cebu have arrested 11 people at the international airport after being found with cash amounting to nearly half a billion pesos ($9 million).
According to The Inquirer, the group had a total of PHP441.92 million ($7.98 million), $168,370 and HK$1,000 ($128) in cash that they failed to declare.
The group claimed the money was part of their winnings from a casino in Cebu, saying that they were casino players brought into the country by junket operator White Horse Club.
Of the 11 detainees, six are Chinese nationals, with one Malaysian, one Indonesian, one Kazakh and two Filipinos.
According to authorities, two of the arrested Chinese nationals are respondents in criminal cases pending in the Philippines, while another Chinese national is the subject of an Interpol notice for fraud.
The individuals were stopped from boarding a private plane at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport bound for Manila.
The undeclared cash was detected during X-ray security checks of their bags.
Authorities indicated that they have doubts of the provenance of the money, with one official indicating “these casino winnings are probably not authenticated or not real […] only being used to justify their possession of that large amount of money”.
Authorities say they are now also aiming to “trace the origin” of the cash.
