Senate bill grants AMLC additional powers, expands scope of offenses

A MEASURE strengthening the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) by granting additional powers and expanding the scope of offenses has been filed in the Senate amid a mounting corruption issue involving government officials.

“Recent corruption issues have highlighted the complexities of financial crimes. Updating the AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Act) to meet the requirements of the times would also prevent us from being placed in the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) gray list again,” Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson said in a statement on Thursday.

In February, the Philippines was removed from the FATF’s gray list, which includes jurisdictions under increased monitoring for “dirty money” following a successful on-site visit and completion of the recommended action plan.

Under Senate Bill No. 1557, Mr. Lacson sought to grant AMLC the power to issue non-court-based subpoenas, file freeze orders and civil forfeiture petitions directly, and conduct bank inquiries without court approval in expanded cases.

The measure broadens the scope of offenses to include terrorism, cybercrime, child exploitation, Anti-Dummy Act violations, and agricultural economic sabotage, and expand coverage of persons to include those buying and selling real estate, lawyers and accountants, and online gambling operators.

It will also allow the inspection of covered persons for compliance and suspend the transactions suspected of money laundering or terrorism financing.

The proposed measure sets the threshold for conducting customer due diligence by casinos to P150,000, equivalent to the FATF-prescribed threshold of $3,000. It will also order the creation of a system for verifying the true identity of casino clients.

The Senate Blue Ribbon panel previously revealed the money laundering scheme of Public Works district engineers, that allegedly used funds meant for flood control infrastructure to play in casinos in exchange for casino chips.

“The bill enhances the AMLC’s role as the country’s independent central anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing authority,” Mr. Lacson said.

He added that the agency will function as the financial intelligence unit, specialized money laundering and terrorism financing investigation agency, and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulator and supervisor of the Philippines. — Adrian H. Halili