Marcos orders LGUs, agencies: Fight money laundering

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos has ordered concerned government agencies, government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) and local government units (LGUs) to hasten the implementation of strategies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing in the country.

Memorandum Circular No. 37, signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin last Monday, stated that there is an “urgent” need to implement the National Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorism Financing and Counter-Proliferation Financing Strategy (NACS) 2023-2027.

“The urgent implementation of the NACS 2023-2027, particularly its strategic objective 1, will intensify and expedite efforts to address deficiencies identified by the FATF ICRG,” the memo said, referring to the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force’s International Cooperation Review Group.

The FATF has retained the Philippines on its gray list this year due to the country’s failure to adequately address the gaps to counter money laundering as well as terrorist and proliferation financing.

“As of September 2023, out of 18 ICRG Action Plans, the Philippines must still address eight plans for it to exit the FATF Gray List by January 2024,” the Presidential Communications Office said in a statement yesterday.

MC 37 tasked all agency heads to review and assess their deliverables under the ICRG Action Plan, assign focal persons to complete the deliverables by Nov. 30 and establish a mechanism to monitor the progress of each deliverable.

The National Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Coordinating Committee Secretariat was directed to furnish all concerned agencies of the respective deliverables and office targets under the ICRG Action Plans and other relevant documents, including pertinent NACC resolutions.

The memorandum also directed the Anti-Money Laundering Council to submit to the Office of the Executive Secretary, through the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs, a comprehensive report on the status of the implementation of the NACS 2023-2027, particularly the Strategic Objective 1, on or before Dec. 8.

The implementation of the memorandum circular will be funded through the respective appropriations of concerned government agencies and the corporate operating budgets of concerned GOCCs, according to the memo.

In a statement in June, FATF president T. Raja Kumar of Singapore said the Philippines remains under the gray list or jurisdictions under increased monitoring after missing the January 2023 deadline as it has yet to address eight out of the 18 deficiencies in its anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism controls.

Marcos issued Executive Order No. 33 in July, adopting the NACS 2023-2027 to enable the Philippines to address the ICRG Action Plans and ensure that the country exits the FATF Grey List.

“Under international standards on combating ML/TF (money laundering/terrorism financing), countries are required to identify, assess and understand the money laundering and terrorism financing risk for the country and are mandated, based on the said assessment, to apply a risk-based approach to ensure that measures to prevent or mitigate ML/TF are commensurate with the risks identified,” the EO said.

In a speech in Capiz early this month, Marcos directed the military to focus on dismantling terrorist financing to clear the country of communist insurgency.

The President underscored the need to ensure that communist terrorist groups would no longer have the platform to finance their operations.

Armed groups reportedly tend to pose as a humanitarian unit that seeks financing from international institutions, but the money they would get from the approved project proposals would not be remitted fully to the projects of their target groups.