AMLC eyes terror groups

The Anti-Money Laundering Council has started looking into the assets and accounts of suspected terrorists operating in the country, hoping to possibly freeze funds meant to finance terror training and operations, an AMLC top official said yesterday.

AMLC executive director and lawyer Vicente Aquino did not name names but confirmed to reporters that the agency is investigating "accounts of certain terrorist organizations."

Citing the confidentiality of their operations, Aquino refused to say if Jose Maria Sison, the self-exiled founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), is included in the AMLC’s list.

The CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, have been placed by the United States in its list of foreign terrorist organizations last year as part of the US government’s renewed campaign against terror.

According to the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are on top of the country’s list of terror organizations.

Speaking before the members of the National Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee, Aquino also batted for the speedy passage into law of the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act now pending at the Senate to better equip the Philippines in combating money-laundering activities.

Aquino said the proposed law will boost the country’s chances of being removed from the blacklist of the Financial Anti-Money Laundering Task Force (FATF).