Solon wants BIR chief in AMLC

Should Congress decide to amend the newly enacted Anti-Money Laundering Law, Negros Oriental Rep. Herminio Teves said he would push for the inclusion of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in the council tasked to investigate suspicious financial transactions.

"If we must amend the law and reduce the P4-million threshold that would trigger an investigation into suspicious transactions, then we might as well push for other important changes, such as putting the BIR chief in the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC)," Teves said.

At present, the AMLC is composed of the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Insurance Commission.

Teves, House ways and means committee senior vice chair, said putting the BIR chief in the AMLC would facilitate the investigation and prosecution of suspects in money-laundering cases for possible tax evasion.

"In the US, many syndicated felons are being put behind bars not necessarily for the offense for which they were first investigate, but for tax dodging," Teves pointed out.

Should the Philippines fail to convince the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on the adequacy of the Anti-Money Laundering Law, House leaders and BSP officials previously agreed to consider lowering the ceiling for bank transactions that would be subject to scrutiny (for possible laundering).

BSP officials had intimated that the FATF "appears to prefer a lower threshold of anywhere from P500,000 to P1 million."