Congress panel okays money laundering rules

A congressional oversight committee has finally approved the implementing rules and regulations of the country’s anti-money laundering law.

This would bring the Philippines a step closer to being removed from an international blacklist of countries and territories seen as conducive to money laundering by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world body leading the fight against money laundering.

The implementing guidelines were already with the 14-member committee before Congress went on recess on June 6. The panel nevertheless held hearings to approve the guidelines.

The guidelines would then be submitted to the FATF for approval upon request.

"We can’t submit the plan until we are asked to do so, but we have already laid it out," a source told The STAR. "We are ready to submit the plan to them as soon as they ask and part of that will be the (implementing rules and regulations)."

Despite progress in legislation, the Philippines has remained on the FATF’s list of so-called non-cooperative countries and territories (NCCTs) because the anti-launder law had yet to be implemented, the task force said in an advisory last month.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) said the country’s laws comply with the FATF’s standards. The AMLC is the Philippines’ anti-launder watchdog.

The FATF advisory delisted Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from the NCCT group, leaving behind the Cook Islands, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, the Philippines and Ukraine.

The FATF report cited progress made by the countries and territories still on the NCCT list in addressing deficiencies and called on them to continue this work.