President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has done two things no president has:
• Effect the arrest of a former president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, for trial before the International Criminal Court for alleged crime against humanity – the widespread and systematic attack on civilian population, the extrajudicial killing of 12,000 to 30,000 victims.
• The Philippine exit on Feb. 21, 2025 from the gray list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Paris-based global anti-money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. A gray list meant a weak anti-money laundering regime.
Duterte’s arrest and the dirty money exit prove that we have a rule of law, which should improve the climate for doing business and governance. Foreign direct investments (FDI) should intensify.
Under president Duterte, in June 2021, the Philippines was blacklisted for three reasons: unrestrained money laundering; the unsupervised operations of casinos, legal and illegal; and allowing Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs), which became massive crime operations engaged in money laundering, sex trafficking, kidnapping, and other nefarious crimes.
The Bangko Sentral said the exit is expected to facilitate faster and lower-cost cross-border transactions, reduce compliance barriers and enhance financial transparency. These will support business, strengthen the country’s position as an attractive destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) and benefit Filipinos, particularly overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
On Feb. 10, 2025, the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant against Duterte for the crimes against humanity of murder, torture and rape. The ICC Pre-Trial Court Chamber I signed the arrest warrant (only for crime against humanity) on March 7, 2025.
With remarkable, swift, sudden and seamless efficiency, authorities arrested Duterte on March 11, 2025, bundled him onto a private jet on March 12 and delivered him to the ICC Detention Center on March 13.
During his six-year presidency and most recently even as ex-president, last year, before the hearings of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Duterte had mocked and cursed the ICC, telling the court, in effect, “Come and get me, I am waiting for you. Make my day.”
On March 11, 2015, agents of the Interpol and the Philippine National Police collared The Punisher upon arrival from Hong Kong on CX 907 at 9:20 a.m. and 13 hours later, at 11:03 p.m., March 11, loaded him into a government chartered private Gulfstream G550 jet which flew 10 hours to Dubai where it landed at 9:15 a.m., Manila time, March 12. The Dubai stopover lasted six hours and 43 minutes. At 3:58 p.m., March 12, Manila time, the jet took off for The Hague where it landed at 1:11 a.m. Thursday (March 13) Manila time. At 9:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13, Manila time, Duterte, in coat and tie and in a weak trembling voice, identified himself before a three-woman panel of judges, stating his full name, his birth date (March 28, 1945) and place of birth (Leyte).
As the “Superman” mayor of Davao (1988-1998, when the Davao Death Squad was constituted as his anti-crime task force) and as “The Punisher” president from June 30, 2016 to June 30, 2022, Duterte gave kill orders and cash rewards to the killers who were active policemen and hired contract hitmen in conducting the largest peacetime extermination of civilians in Philippine history.
The arrest of Duterte and handing him over to the ICC for trial are authorized, in fact, mandated, by a Dec. 1, 2009 Philippine law, “an Act Defining and Penalizing Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity.” RA 9851 was enacted almost two years before the Philippines joined the ICC on Nov. 1, 2011 after the Senate ratified the Rome Statute in August 2011.
RA 9851 punishes the same crimes in the Rome Statute over which the ICC has jurisdiction. In Section 9, the president of the Philippines cannot exempt a person from criminal responsibility. In Section 17, the authorities may surrender or extradite suspected or accused persons in the Philippines to the appropriate international court, or to another state, pursuant to the applicable extradition laws and treaties.
Meanwhile, FDIs fell dramatically below $10 billion a year, after reports of extrajudicial killings and illegal gambling operations called POGOs became daily headline material.
In November 2024, President Marcos Jr. banned all POGOs. Two high-profile suspects were arrested: Alice Guo and pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
Guo was accused of being a Chinese spy, having ties to Chinese criminal syndicates, of money laundering, human trafficking and tax evasion. Per the FBI, Quiboloy was wanted for alleged labor and sex trafficking.
A gray list blacklist was a burden for banks and other financial institutions and discouraged correspondent banking relationships and international financial flows into the country.
Even before the gray list, some foreign regulators had imposed stringent requirements or fines on financial institutions dealing with Philippine entities.
Consequently, some banks avoided business with local entities rather than face risks from money laundering or terrorist financing. The FATF decision may prompt foreign banks to resume their business relationship and transactions with Philippine financial entities.
In July 2023, President Marcos Jr. approved an aggressive anti-money laundering roadmap, including:
• strengthening supervision of designated non-financial businesses, such as lawyers, accountants, real-estate sector and company service providers and casinos;
• reducing risks from casino junkets;
• cracking down on unregistered and illegal money transfer operators;
• improving access to accurate beneficial ownership information for law enforcement agencies;
• increasing investigations and prosecutions against money laundering and terrorism financing;
• measures for non-profit organizations to prevent misuse while allowing legitimate activities and
• stricter cross-border measures on all main sea/airports of the country.
Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin, chairman of the National Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing/Counter-Proliferation Financing (AML/CTF/CPF) Coordinating Committee (NACC) and Bangko Sentral Governor Eli Remolona went to Paris last January to show to the FATF the success of the Philippine action plan.
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