Senate fails to approve AMLA amendments

It has become more likely that the Philippines will be blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as the Senate failed Wednesday night to approve a bill that would strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), according to Senator Sergio Osmeña. Osmeña, chairman of the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies, said the passage of the bill was being delayed by some senators.

 

"Sinabi ni [Senator] Joker [Arroyo] you must guarantee that the bicameral conference committee will accept it. Sabi ko hindi natin magagarantiya ang bicam kaya may House at Senate ‘eh," said Osmeña.

 

Senate Bill 3123 seeks to extend the coverage of the AMLA to include the reporting entities; provide a broader definition of money laundering; and increase the number of predicate crimes to include bribery, malversation of public funds, human trafficking, tax evasion and environmental crimes.

 

Osmeña said Arroyo was questioning why banks are not penalized for accepting questionable deposits.

 

"Sabi ko hindi naman malalaman ng banko until later, unless your name is a notorious jueteng lord, bakit hindi mo tatanggapin," he said. 

 

"I'm very disappointed because if our country gets demoted to the blacklist, everybody will suffer," he added.

 

Osmeña said that, if not for the effort of some senators to block the bill, the Senate should have passed the bill last Monday, discussed it in the bicameral conference committee on Tuesday and ratified it on Wednesday. "Pero hindi nangyari."

 

The FATF is now meeting in Hong Kong and the deadline for the Philippines to approve the bill is on October 19.

 

The Senate adjourned its session October 17 and will resume work on November 5.

 

If the Philippines fails to pass the bill, the country would be demoted from its present position in the grey list to the blacklist.

 

"Hindi na pwede bumalik sa dark grey. Once lang daw ang dark grey. After nun black (list na.) Magmamakaawa na naman tayong lahat," Osmeña said. 

 

The country was taken out of the dark grey list and moved up to the grey list in June when the Congress approved the Terrorist Financing Suppression Act and the Act To Further Strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering Law.

 

Inclusion in the FATF blacklist would greatly affect the country’s financial, business and labor sectors as well as the overseas Filipino workers who remit money. — DVM, GMA News