The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) remains fresh in the minds of the people because of the key role it played in the impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Now the body is threatening to blacklist the Philippines for the country’s failure to approve one remaining amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Act, or AMLA.

To recall, it was Corona’s failure to declare all his assets and liabilities as recorded by AMLA that led to his downfall.

Until then, the public knew little of AMLA and even less of the FATF. What was revealed earlier this year was that the FATF had convinced (some say coerced) the Philippines to create the Act as a safeguard against money laundering.

It was necessary for the country to join the global war against money laundering because the Philippines was suspected of being an unwitting tool of organized mobs and financiers of terrorism owing to reputedly strict banking secrecy laws.

Thanks to the FATF, the movement of large amounts of money in the banking system could be traced

To those with nothing to hide, the AMLA was an effective way of pinning down ownership of large amounts of money coming from dubious sources. To others, however, the Act was perceived as a dangerous threat to anyone’s right to privacy. Specifically, the AMLA could be used to bypass the country’s Bank Secrecy Act, which is exactly what happened in the case of Corona.

The FATF is not an insignificant organization, but rather an international body that sets the standards and monitors the implementation of measures for fighting money laundering, terrorist financing, and other threats to the integrity of the global financial system. This, according to the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the superbody headed by the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which sees to it that the AMLA is followed to the letter.

Once the FATF puts the country on its blacklist, member-countries can either impose sanctions in the form of stringent requirements or restrictive scrutiny of financial transactions to and from the Philippines.

Global transactions of Philippine corporations will very likely be scrutinized deeply, just to make sure that these companies are not laundering illicit funds.

The country should, therefore, do everything possible to make sure that it is never placed on that blacklist. The Philippines has a global reputation to protect, after all.

It is up to the country’s 23-member Senate to make sure that the Philippines never joins the list of countries that provide sanctuary to dirty money.

It is only the Senate that can act to prevent the country being named as a non-cooperative country or territory. All the senators have to do is to pass Senate Bill 3123 which seeks to expand the list of unlawful activities and predicate crimes from 14 to 29 to include terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism, bribery, fraud, malversation of public funds and property, forgery and counterfeiting, and tax evasion.

This would seem to be a no-brainer. There is no valid reason why the bill which effectively amends the AMLA should not be passed. All it does is widen the definition of criminal acts covered by the law.

Deadline
Senator Teofisto “TG” Guingona has warned that the Philippines is in danger of being blacklisted if SB 3123 is not passed this week. After all, the bill was introduced in the plenary back in May 16, this year.

There is little that the Aquino administration can do to speed up the process, save perhaps to communicate with the members of the upper house of Congress the urgency of passing SB 3123.

Failure to do so sends the wrong message that the Philippines is opting to take a cavalier stance, and is not taking the possibility of being blacklisted seriously.

The worst thing that can happen is for the FATF to place the Philippines in its blacklist because the country’s senators took their own good time to review the amending law. They can be expected to point accusing fingers at each other if this takes place. Then, and only then, will they take the necessary action by rushing to pass the bill.

It is safe to presume that the good senators have already deliberated on the merits and demerits of the proposed amending law. Further deliberations will be nothing more than a useless exercise in futility, and a waste of their own time.

In putting off to tomorrow what can be done today, they will cause severe damage to the country’s reputation.

What, we have to ask, are they waiting for? Pass SB 3123 already.