Palace vows to go after big money launderers

Malacañang assured yesterday the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that the government has been prosecuting money launderers.

The FATF wants to see a successful prosecution of money launderers before it would consider removing the Philippines from its blacklist.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 and amended it in February last year to bring money launderers before the bar of justice.

"We pushed vigorously for the approval of the Anti-Money Laundering Law, and we will match this with equal determination to prosecute money launderers," he said in a statement from Malacañang.

"Strict monitoring is in force and evidence is being gathered diligently. No big fish will be spared from the law," Bunye said.

The government had adhered to the conditions set up by the FATF to have the Philippines removed from its blacklist, he added.

However, Central Bank Gov. Rafael Buenaventura said it would be difficult for the Philippines to be immediately taken out of the FATF blacklist.

Buenaventura, chairman of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), said the process could take so long that the Philippines may still be in the FATF list of uncooperative countries when his six-year term ends in July next year.

"FATF delisting will be a challenge for my successor," he said. "We have passed the law but there’s still a lot of work to be done."

Buenaventura said the FATF was generally satisfied with the Philippine implementation plan but there were still concerns that the FATF wanted the government to address.

"We are making revisions in our plan along these lines," he said. "We want to see ourselves whether the FATF had a point."

Foremost of these concerns was whether the AMLA was capturing the right number of suspicious transactions and accounts in the banking system, he added.

However, Buenaventura said the final determining factor was whether the system in place was enough to actually lead to the successful prosecution of money-laundering activities and their perpetrators.

"Corollary to that, the FATF wants to see if we have the computer system in place that could handle the task," he said.

Buenaventura said the Philippines would have to comply with some recommendations made by the FATF.

Over the weekend, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said the FATF has completed its initial evaluation of the country’s implementation plan for the anti-money laundering law in preparation for the delisting process.

Since it was created in 2002, the AMLC has faltered, and with no funds forthcoming, it has been dependent on the BSP to fund its initial database build-up and staffing requirements.

The legislative adjustments have also not been completed as the FATF expanded its list of so-called predicate crimes to include graft and corruption, tax evasion, child prostitution and violations of environmental laws under its Revised 40 Recommendations.

The FATF is made up of 31 industrialized nations, including the United States, members of the European Union and Japan.

It blacklists countries it judges are not doing enough to block the flow of dirty money around the world. Such a move hurts the flow of investments and funds into an offending country.

The FATF has ruled that a law passed by the Philippines in 2001 and amendments made to it in February last year were insufficient to stop the flow of illegal funds.

The amendments signed into law by Mrs. Arroyo allow the BSP to access account information without the need for a court order.

The threshold for bank transactions to be investigated was also lowered from $74,000 to about $10,000.

Criminal investigations would still need prior court permission to gain access to suspect bank accounts, unless it involved cases of kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking or terrorism. — Marvin Sy