House won’t rush to meet deadline for launder

Despite threats of sanctions from developed countries making up the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), congressmen decided yesterday to take their own sweet time in enacting a law against money laundering.

Members of the House committee on banks led by its chairman, Rep. Jaime Lopez (Lakas, Manila), said the country should not be seen as rushing the passage of legislation against the hiding here of "dirty" money to meet the Sept. 30 deadline set by FATF.

The task force has listed 15 countries which it claimed were not cooperating in the global effort to counter money laundering, or the concealment of proceeds from drug trafficking, kidnapping and other illegal activities.

The list included the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia. However, Russia has followed the FATF recommendation and passed an anti-money laundering law. It expects to be removed soon from the list of "non-cooperative" countries.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) have pleaded with lawmakers to enact a measure against money laundering before the Sept. 30 deadline so the country can avoid sanctions from FATF members, including the United States.

BSP and BAP officials said the sanctions would discourage investors as it would make it difficult for those remitting money to and from the country to do such transactions.

Rep. Oscar Moreno (Lakas, Misamis Oriental), chairman of the House economic affairs committee, said the prospect of foreigners being discouraged by FATF sanctions from investing their money here "is very real."

Moreno said large amounts of money, including investments, would be subjected to exhaustive inquiries once the FATF-member countries impose counter-measures against nations they consider as reluctant to cooperate in the fight against money laundering and criminal activities.

"If a US portfolio manager, for instance, wants to invest $3 million in Asian markets, he might consider Thailand and Malaysia since if he includes the Philippines in his list, he would have to answer such questions as why he wants to move money to the Philippines and where his money came from," he said.

He pointed out that Filipinos will also have a hard time remitting money abroad.

However, Moreno said while he and his colleagues are for enacting an anti-money laundering measure, they cannot do it before Sept. 30 since the House is preoccupied with hearings on the proposed P781 billion 2002 budget.

Besides, he said Congress will go on its first break from Sept. 7 to 23.

Earlier, Minority Leader Carlos Padilla (LDP, Nueva Vizcaya) suggested that President Arroyo certify the anti-money laundering bill as urgent so that lawmakers can squeeze it into their agenda for the year.

"The only way the anti-money laundering bill can have a chance of being discussed is for Malacañang to certify it as an urgent measure," he said.

Some non-government organizations have made a fearless forecast that Congress won’t be able to enact a law against the concealment of "dirty" money since it would be punishing many of its members who are suspected to be behind some criminal activities and laundering their huge earnings.

In another development, Ombudsman Aniano Desierto scolded government prosecutors yesterday for the dismissal by the Sandiganbayan of 62 of the 162 criminal cases filed by his office against a former official of the Department of Finance and several other people in connection with the multimillion-peso tax credit certificate (TCT) scam.

The anti-graft court’s fourth division chaired by Associate Justice Narciso Nario dismissed the 62 graft and estafa charges against former Finance Undersecretary Antonio Belicena, Uldarico Andutan Jr., deputy executive director of the One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center; Asuncion Magdaet, officer-in-charge of the textile division and reviewer and evaluator Gemma Ortiz.

"I scolded prosecutors led by Special Prosecutor Leonardo Tamayo for not submitting to me the result of their re-investigation so that I can sign it and submit it to the court," Desierto said.

In dismissing the case, Nario cited the failure of the prosecution panel led by Prosecutor Orlando Ines and Tamayo to submit in court the result of its reinvestigation after more than one year that the court ordered the new probe. — Jess Diaz, Jose Rodel Clapano