DOJ touts wins vs laundering, terror financing

MANILA, Philippines — Citing a win for the government, the Department of Justice said it has secured seven convictions in money laundering cases from 2020 to 2024 following intensified investigation and prosecution.

DOJ deputy state prosecutor Deana Perez said the government filed 180 money laundering cases in court in 2024 alone, compared to only 25 to 30 cases recorded from 2021 to 2023.

“The rise in numbers is really exponential. We increased the number of investigations,” she said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

Among the notable achievements Perez cited is the July 2024 conviction of Janet Lim Napoles in relation to her plunder charges.

Napoles was found guilty of violating the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 and was sentenced to seven to 14 years of imprisonment and ordered to pay a P16-million fine.

Perez said the justice department is expecting to secure more convictions due to the increase in investigations.

The DOJ earlier said at least six accused individuals were convicted of terrorism financing charges, out of the 5,557 cases identified from 2020 to 2024.

Meanwhile, the number of terrorism financing investigations has reached 1,816, while 1,031 terrorism financing information were referred for further action.

Around 71 arrests were made in connection with terrorism financing activities and 237 terrorism financing prosecutions have been initiated.

The DOJ also said that a total of 794 individuals have been accused of money laundering from 2021 to 2024.

A total of 13,799 money laundering investigations were conducted from 2021 to 2024, with 5,821 investigations in 2024 alone.

As a result of such efforts, the Philippines was removed from the “gray list” of the Financial Action Task Force in February.

If a country is gray-listed, it is under increased monitoring by the FATF due to deficiencies in its campaign against money laundering and terrorism financing, among others.

Blacklisted countries, on the other hand, are those with significant strategic shortcomings or with a severe lack of measures to fight money laundering and terrorism financing.

The FATF gray-listed the Philippines in 2021 after the international watchdog identified 18 deficiencies that the government must address to fight money laundering and terrorism financing.

These include deficiencies in regulatory supervision in gambling operations related to Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), weaknesses in the implementation of targeted financial sanctions despite obvious anomalies and delays in implementing the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 despite huge intelligence and confidential funds allocated to it.