Lawmakers want to amend bank secrecy law

MANILA, Philippines - Two lawmakers have filed a bill seeking to amend Republic Act 1405 or the Bank Secrecy Law by removing from its coverage depositors who issue bouncing checks.

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said House Bill 3693 seeks to protect the people and economy from the proliferation of worthless or bouncing checks.

Rodriguez said the bill requires the drawee bank of a bouncing check to divulge the signatory or signatories upon written request of the payee even if the case is not yet filed in court.

Another author of the bill,  Abante Mindanao partylist Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr., younger brother of Rodriguez,  said Batas Pambansa 22 was passed to curb the issuance of bouncing checks.

Maximo said that despite the passage of the law, bouncing checks continue to spread in the market and worse, used by persons engaged in pyramid scams as payments for the recruited investors either as a return of investments or commissions for recruiting other investors.

“The victims of the pyramid scams had difficulty in filing cases for bouncing checks because they did not know who the signatories of the checks were,” Rodriguez said.

“On the other hand, the drawee banks would not divulge the signatories because of the bank secrecy law,” Rodriguez added.