Senate adjourns without passing AMLA amendments
The Senate adjourned its legislative sessions yesterday without approving the bills amending the Anti- Money Laundering Act ( AMLA) and suppressing terrorist financing as required by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the Senate would not be pressured by any international entity to rush the passage of those bills just because it said so.
“As a Filipino, I feel offended by being pressured, by being told by any international office, you do that to us. During the time of President Marcos, we never accepted this kind of treatment,” Enrile said.
“We are not bound to act on the say so of anybody. If we are going to be that jumpy as a country simply because these foreigners will sneeze, and im- mediately jump because they sneeze, I don’t subscribe to that,” he added.
The FATF has placed the Philippines in its dark grey list of countries and has threatened to downgrade the country to its blacklist if it fails to enact into law the bills on AMLA amendments and terrorist financing suppression.
In a letter sent by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to Enrile last March 1, it was emphasized that the country would be able to avoid the blacklisting if the bills are enacted into law before June this year or before the next plenary of the FATF.
“Countries included in the blacklist jurisdiction will be subjected to financial sanctions by the international community which would result in delayed overseas Filipino workers’ ( OFWS) remittances, higher charges and inter- mediation costs on financial transactions of Philippine banks and citizens and thorough scrutiny of Philippinebased transactions, among others,” Ochoa said.
Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, the sponsor of the bills in the Senate, reiterated that the OFWS who would be sending money to the Philippines would be subjected to enhanced verification.
Both Enrile and Sen. Joker Arroyo questioned the membership of the country in the FATF.
Arroyo noted that there are only 35 countries in the FATF and that most of these are developed or highly developed.
“How did we ever get involved with FATF in the first place? We pretend to be an advanced country. This is the reality of it,” Arroyo said.
Guingona said that the Philippines is part of the Asia-pacific grouping of FATF, which includes countries such as Pa- lau, Nauru and Vanuatu.
Enrile said that he does not appreciate the fact that the FATF is dictating on the Philippine Congress how it should craft its laws.
During yesterday’s plenary session, Enrile raised anew the reported memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Anti- Money Laundering Council and the Bureau of Internal Revenue ( BIR) that would pave the way for the examination of bank accounts of taxpayers.
Guingona confirmed that the MOA exists and that it was accomplished pursuant to Section 7 of the AMLA and Section 5 of the National Internal Revenue Code.
He said that the examination would only be allowed if it were related to a predicate crime as enumerated in the AMLA.
Enrile raised his concern about the arrangement, which he said was a dangerous situ- ation.
“After martial law we never looked into the accounts of other people,” Enrile said.
“Report to the Senate why a MOA is entered into between the AMLC and BIR when tax avoidance or whatever is not among the predicate crimes. That’s why Congress established a standard, a predicate crime before you can go into a bank account of any citizen. It’s a mandate of Congress, a mandate of the bureaucrats,” Enrile said.
Arroyo pointed out that tax evasion is not even included among the predicate crimes in the AMLA.
Guingona said that a hearing would be conducted for the purpose of clarifying the issues in the MOA and that the BIR and AMLC members would be directed to explain the details during the hearing.
The three bills are already being deliberated on in the plenary and are all pending approval on second reading.
Senate Bill 3009 would pave the way for the AMLC to ask any court for an order freezing a monetary instrument or property after determining that probable cause exists without informing the account holder first, like what is being done at present.
The second bill, Senate Bill 3123, is meant to expand the coverage of AMLA to several institutions and individuals including foreign exchange corporations, money changers, remittance and transfer companies, pre-need firms, casinos, real estate agents and dealers of precious metals and stones.
It would also expand the list of unlawful activities to include terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism, bribery, fraud and illegal transactions, malversation of public funds, forgeries and counterfeiting and human trafficking.
The third bill, Senate Bill 3127, deals with the suppression of terrorist financing, which would also fall under the mandate of the AMLC.