14 senators sign report recommending AMLA amendments

Fourteen senators, including Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, have signed the 82page report prepared by his committee that recommended amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law (AMLA) covering casinos, real estate brokers and motor vehicles.

The Blue Ribbon panel noted how it encountered problems in an inquiry into a multimillion-dollar heist when the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) invoked provisions of the bank secrecy law to get around questions regarding transactions of the bank.

“RCBC was hesitant in disclosing the details of the fictitious accounts for fear of violating our bank secrecy laws,” it added.

“There appears to be a gap in the wordings of the law since in a situation of a fictitious account, there is no depositor that can waive the application of bank secrecy. A strict interpretation of the law will then result to a preposterous situation of a fictitious account being protected by our bank secrecy laws,” the report said.

RCBC bank manager Maia Santos-Deguito was grilled for opening five fictitious accounts later used to “park” millions of dollars from the hacking of the Bank of Bangladesh account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank before they were transferred to various accounts, including the firm of junket operator Kim Wong. Aside from Guingona, Sens. Sergio Osmeña III, Bam Aquino, Cynthia Villar, Koko Pimentel, Pia Cayetano, JV Ejercito, Nancy Binay, Gregorio Honasan, Alan Peter Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Juan Edgardo Angara, Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon Revilla Jr. signed the report.

The Senate report was based on the series of hearings into the money laundering activities related to the $81-million siphoned from Bangladesh Bank, proceeds of which were laundered in the Philippines through the RCBC, remittance firm Philrem, local casinos and junket operators.

Ironically, Guingona did not report the findings before the Senate plenary session.

At press time, the report was submitted by the Blue Ribbon secretariat to the Senate Bills and Index, which accepted the report but did not “number” it since it was not formally endorsed by Guingona, who did not attend the last session day of the 16th Congress.