RP reaffirms commitment to war vs terror

The Philippines remains committed to the global fight against terrorism and will fine-tune the country’s anti-money laundering law so that it can be used to stop the flow of terrorist funding, President Arroyo assured yesterday.

The President gave the assurance to US Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor who paid her a courtesy call at Malacañang, accompanied by Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho.

"Talked about the amendments to the anti-money laundering law (or Republic Act 9160) which we are proposing and working with leaders of Congress to be able to meet international standards," Camacho told Palace reporters.

Camacho said the President assured the visiting US official that Congress has agreed to lower to P500,000 the P4 million minimum amount that would require banks to monitor and report "suspicious" bank accounts.

"We are earnestly trying to address the remaining issues and he expressed the support of the US with regard to our efforts to get ourselves out of the blacklist of the (Financial Action Task Force)," Camacho said.

The Philippines was placed in the blacklist along with several other countries which are considered to be "money-laundering friendly" by the multilateral FATF.

To get out of the list, Manila passed the RA 9160 but the FATF said the law lacked teeth because the "threshold" of P4 million was much too high. The FATF threatened to impose sanctions against the country if it cannot meet certain minimum standards.

"(But) they recognized that it will take sometime because this will require amendments to this legislation and we asked for their support in maintaining the status quo... until such time that we are able to successfully pass the amendments," he said.

In their meeting, Mrs. Arroyo also thanked Washington for the $8.2 million Tropical Forest Program financing that the US extended for the government environmental conservation program.

Camacho said the President and Taylor also spoke about how the Philippines could further avail of US aid under the Millennium Challenge account.

"This is P5 billion additional funds that the US would like to provide in the next five years to countries that they believe meet the criteria that they are still formulating," Camacho said.

The US is making the funds available to allies to pursue programs in health, education, fighting acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Africa, and market reforms, among others.