Senate passes bill to strengthen anti-money laundering law – Manila Bulletin

The Senate has initiated plenary discussions on the bill that will strengthen the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Law in accordance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international watchdog.

Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee, sponsored Senate Bill No. 1945.

The bill, contained in Committee Report No. 149, consolidates two measures presented by Poe and Senator Imee Marcos on the AMLA amendments, including input from interested parties, and Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senators Sherwin. Gatchalian and Cynthia Villar during the committee hearings.

“Before us there is an important measure that requires our immediate attention. The Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering urges us to act immediately on this, ‘as a form of national economic emergency, due to the very serious economic costs’ arising from non-compliance, ”Poe said in his sponsorship speech.

“This measure, which seeks to further amend the 2001 Anti-Money Laundering Act, was developed in response to the key findings of the mutual evaluation report or MER that assessed our compliance with the 40 FATF recommendations,” he added.

Among others, the bill lists real estate developers and brokers as covered persons “due to the fact that real estate activities are widely used as a front for money laundering and terrorist financing around the world.”

He said they would be covered when they participated in a single cash transaction exceeding P5 million or its equivalent in any other currency.

The bill also sought to cover overseas gambling operators (POGOs) and service providers from the Philippines.

Poe said that violation of tax laws and the Strategic Business Management Act, which relates to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their financing, are predicate offenses for money laundering.

The bill set the threshold at P50 million or more, but Poe said there should be a finding of fraud or malicious and deliberate misrepresentation on the part of the tax offender.

The Senate banking committee also strengthened the functions of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), by:

(1) enhance its powers of investigation through express powers of delegation, power to request a search warrant, and power to obtain information on the beneficial owner;
(2) authorizing it to implement specific financial sanctions on the financing of proliferation;
(3) authorizing it to conserve, manage or dispose of assets subject to order of preservation of assets and forfeiture by sentence; Y
(4) prohibit the issuance of precautionary measures against freezing orders and confiscation procedures under its jurisdiction.

Poe said they did not grant the AMLC’s request for subpoena powers.

“We didn’t give the AMLC too much power because some of those things could violate our basic rights,” he said.

Poe called on his colleagues to get the bill passed as soon as possible, being certified as an urgent measure by President Duterte.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III, however, said that according to chamber rules, the president’s certification does not apply to substitute bills.

Duterte must issue a separate certification for SB No. 1945, he said.

If it becomes law, the senators noted that this would be the fifth time that the AMLA would be amended following the FATF recommendations.

Government finance managers had warned that the Philippines could be included in the “gray list” or high-risk and non-cooperative countries if it does not implement the AMLA reforms.

The FATF extended the deadline from October 2020 to February 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Being on this list is a very strong signal to market participants and regulators globally. It has implications that we must avoid as much as we can, especially during times of a global pandemic, ”Poe said.