T The Institute for Religious Works is a Vatican Bank, located in the tower of Niccolo V, within the Vatican City.

It was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage assets destined for religious or charitable works.

This bank is unlike the ordinary bank for it is not open to the public. Top, high ranking members of the clergy have special entrance manned with security guards. The list of 40,000 to 45,000 said account-holders is secret, of people with Vatican connections. The structure and culture of the institution is that powerful account-holders can exert pressure on management.

The Vatican City has a special status being an independent state within Italy. It has special immunity the Italian law cannot touch. But the Institute for Religious Works better known as Vatican Bank is its Achilles’ heel. The bank’s reputation is blackened with incidents of death of financial advisers and suspicions as fronts for corrupt businessmen and Mafia. Even alleged by Holocaust survivors to store Nazi loot. Italian police seized euro23 million ($30 million) in Vatican assets, for violations of money-laundering law.

Roman prosecutors were able to move against the Vatican Bank because it is classified by the Bank of Italy as a foreign financial institution operating in Italy. The Institute for Religious Works had decades of scandals and case allegations on money-laundering. The Vatican Bank has never shed its penchant for secrecy and scandal. Vatican had failed to furnish information on the origin or destination of the funds as required by Italian law. It ignored regulations that foreign banks must communicate to Italian financial authorities where their money has come from. The Vatican Bank deliberately flouted anti-money laundering laws to hide the ownership, destination and origin of the capital.

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Tidbits:

G.R. No. 156573, June 19, 2007, MICRONESIA RESOURCES, et al. versus- FABIOLO CANTOMAYOR.

(Courtesy of Atty. Fidel Borja)

Given that Cantomayor had not been able to resume the same work or activity for more than 120 days, the CA cannot be faulted in discarding the Grade 7 disability assessment of the company physician and in declaring that Cantomayor suffers from Grade 1 disability.

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Greetings to Capt. F. Gabriel, 2/O B. Belderol, Training Director, Maersk Shipping Lines, 2/O B. Hornido and A/B T. Garan.