THE Senate, voting 21-0, passed on third reading Monday a reinforced Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla), inching closer to bicameral talks with the House of Representatives to hammer out a reconciled final version of the remedial legislation.
In seeking its early enactment, Senator Grace Poe, principal sponsor of Senate Bill 1945 strengtheing the Amla, said early enactment of the bill updating the existing law is “crucial to the Philippines’s economic comeback in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Poe, who chairs the Committee on Banks, pointed out “there are cracks in our financial institutions that some people have used to their advantage,” adding that “with the Amla amendments, their days are numbered.”
The lawmaker gave assurances that the Amla amendments, as crafted, will confront “emergent risks and challenges facing our financial system and at the same time, protective of the money of the people, including hard-earned cash of overseas Filipino workers.”
She added that the awaited legislation will be finalized soon as the Senate and the House of Representatives panels convene a conference committee meeting to hammer out a reconciled final version.
Among others, the remedial legislation updated provisions in the existing law to curb money laundering and terrorist financing activities, including amendments focusing on the “inclusion of offshore gaming operators and service providers introduced as different set of covered persons from casinos.”
Moreover, proponents introduced adopted provisions dealing with tax crimes covered by Amla and their proposed threshold. It also included a section on information security and confidentiality, and a system of incentives and rewards.
The senator said the measure was crafted as “a response to the key findings” of the mutual evaluation report which evaluated the Philippines’s compliance with the 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering.
“If we fail to act now, the FATF Asia Pacific Joint Group or AP-JG will place the Philippines in the so-called ‘grey list’ along with countries like Albania, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe,” said Poe.
She explained that “being on the grey list could put Filipino nationals and businesses under tighter scrutiny that could upset investors as it means additional paper costs, paperwork, high interest rates and processing fees.”
She also noted that the “enhanced due diligence” to be imposed on the Philippines could translate as well to higher costs of remittance for the millions of overseas Filipino workers sending money to their families. “We have come this far in reforming the Amla, for the sake of good governance, transparency and enhanced financial systems. There’s no turning back until we have a stronger law,” said Poe.
Image credits: Roy Domingo