Senate bill to amend bank secrecy law

MANILA, Philippines - Senators have filed a bill seeking to lift the prohibition on the investigation into the bank deposits of former and current government officials and employees accused of wrongdoing.

The senators said Section 2 of Republic Act 1405 or the Secrecy of Bank Deposits Act must be amended because it had often been a stumbling block in the prosecution of government officials accused of corruption.

They said there had been many attempts by government agencies to curb graft and corruption both by legal means and naming and shaming public officers, but the Bank Secrecy Act had worked in their favor, contrary to public interest.

Senate Bill 3116 was filed by Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, and members Senators Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Rodolfo Biazon, Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honasan II, Panfilo Lacson, Manuel Lapid, Loren Legarda, Jamby Madrigal, Francis Pangilinan, Manuel Roxas II, Antonio Trillanes IV and Ramon Revilla Jr.

In the bill, senators said the Anti-Money Laundering Council invoked the confidentiality of bank accounts during the Senate investigations into the fertilizer fund mess when asked about the frozen accounts of former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante, the alleged main architect of the fertilizer scam.

“Thus, there is a need to lower the threshold level of the secrecy of bank deposits when the individuals involved are public officers and employees,” read the bill.

“Since public officers and employees have chosen their profession and they are bound by the Constitution to be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice and lead modest lives, it is but proper that they can waive their right to privacy once probable cause exists that they have violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or they have been involved in money laundering,” the bill added.

Under the bill, Section 2 of RA 1405 or the Bank Secrecy Law will be amended so that current and former public officers and employees who commit the wrongful acts allegedly during their term in public office “are deemed to have given their permission to inquiry, examination or inspection to all their accounts that are the subject matter of the litigation,” and charged before the courts with any violation of RA 3019 also known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or whose accounts have been frozen under RA 9160 as amended by RA 9194 also known as the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Senators said the country must put more teeth into its law as the Philippines had gravely suffered because of corruption.

The senators said that in the 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International, the Philippines ranked 141 among 180 countries surveyed from the least corrupt to the most corrupt.

The Philippines shares the rank with Iran, Yemen and Cameroon. Countries like Nicaragua, Pakistan and Liberia have slightly higher rank than the Philippines and countries like Timor-Leste, Kazakhstan, BangIadesh, Kenya, Syria and Russia rank slightly lower than the Philippines.