Miriam wants stricter identity check on banks

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago proposed that banks should exercise due diligence and stricter monitoring of accounts owned by politically exposed persons.

 

In lieu of recent scandal involving Vice President Jejomar Binay, the senator filed Senate Bill 2438 to prevent money laundering of ill-gotten wealth by government officials and their supposed "dummies."

 

Businessman Antonio Tiu, the owner of a 150-hectare property in Batangas, is alleged to be the vice president's dummy to hide his ownership of the P450 million estate.

 

READ: Tony Tiu submits unnotarized document on Batangas property

 

"To conceal and prevent recovery of assets illegally obtained, corrupt government officials use their relatives and close associates to act as nominees, dummies, or fronts. These dummies then form corporate entities and open bank accounts in their own name. However, the corporations and the bank accounts are actually beneficially held or controlled by the corrupt official," Santiago said.

 

Dummies are the registered legal owners of an asset but the "beneficial owner" is the real person who owns, controls and benefits from a property.

 

Under the proposed measure, banks will require customers to complete a written and signed declaration identifying themselves.

 

"While some criminals are unlikely to be deterred by the written declaration on beneficial ownership, their family members and close associates will be less inclined to lie to banks if they face individual criminal liability for issuing false statements," the senator said.

 

Once a politically exposed person is identified as a beneficial owner of an account, the bank will continually monitor the client's transactions.

 

Santiago also co-authored anti-dummy bill with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada which seeks to prevent public officials to name assets on dummies.