Senate ratifies bill strengthening Anti-Money Laundering Law

(Updated 10:53 p.m.) The Philippines is a step closer to a stiffer law against money laundering after Congress ratified the bicameral conference committee report on a bill strengthening Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA). The Senate and the House of Representatives both pulled off a last-minute ratification of the committee report in a bid to prevent the Philippines from being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which determines if a country needs to beef up its anti-money laundering efforts. Officials have said that the blacklisting of the Philippines may result in more stringent processing of financial transactions involving Filipinos and Filipino corporations, including that of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). The bill, which was certified urgent by President Benigno Aquino III, seeks to expand the list of entities required to report financial transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Council by including pre-need companies, money changers, real estate agents, and dealers of precious stones and metal among others. Aside from expanding covered entities, the bill also enumerates additional predicate crimes such as trafficking in persons, bribery, counterfeiting, fraud and other illegal exactions, forgery, malversation, environmental crimes, and terrorism and its financing. On Monday, the Senate approved the bill on third and final reading with a vote of 15-0. A bicameral conference committee approved the same measure a day after. The bill, however, still has to be signed by Aquino before it can be enacted into law. Aquino has already signed into law two other AMLA-related measures: the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act (R.A. 10168), which seeks to allow authorities to freeze terrorist funds, and the Anti-Money Laundering Act (R.A. 10167) which seeks to allow the AMLC to inquire into bank deposits based on an ex parte application and allow courts other than the Court of Appeals to issue freeze orders. — Kimberly Jane Tan/Andreo Calonzo/BM, GMA News