Senators are wary over a House initiative to pass an amending law stripping Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) authority over the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), voicing apprehension such could “create more problems.”
Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria-Macapgal Arroyo on Tuesday proposed removing BSP authority to supervise AMLC operations in order to “insulate BSP officials” from perceived political bias or acts of the council.
She said AMLC is seen as tool for selective justice by past administration and now acts very slowly on the current administration’s requests for information on certain parties.
Representative Arroyo affirmed, however, that BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco’s integrity remains unassailable, even as the AMLC was often perceived to be acting on its own.
Asked if the Committee on Banks and Financial Institutions will endorse a Senate counterpart measure, its chairman, Sen. Francis G. Escudero indicated no inclination to follow suit.
“Assuming that, indeed, that is their reason, the BSP has only a seat in AMLC,” Escudero told the BusinessMirror. “It does not ‘supervise’ AMLC. If, indeed, as they claim, the BSP and Mr. Tetangco’s integrity is unassailable, then why remove them from a supposedly politicized AMLC? All the more that the BSP should be there in order to balance it off.”
Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri, chairman of the Trade and Commerce Committee, also saw no urgency in crafting a counterpart bill, which the Senate would also need to pass for Arroyo’s proposal to be submitted to President Duterte for signing into law.
“I will study the measure first and see what are the best practices done in other countries with very strict antimoney laundering policies,” Zubiri said.
Zubiri added, “If they are successful with their policies using their own central bank as their mother unit, then why fix something that ain’t broke?”
Still, Zubiri did not completely write off the Arroyo bill as he assured the Senators will “definitely study the House proposal thoroughly.”
Sen.Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, also asked for time to first review the House bill filed by Arroyo.
“Let me study about this carefully,” Gatchalian said.
For his part, Sen. Joel Villanueva, chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development, said he would favor remedial legislation that would further ensure “BSP independence” from political pressures.
“We will support any measure that would give the leadership of the BSP [what it needs] in ensuring the independence of the BSP and being apolitical at all times,” said Villanueva, adding he “would rather expand the authority of the AMLC to cover casinos given recent incidents of illegal transactions using our casinos.”
In announcing her plans to push legislation removing BSP authority to oversee AMLC operations, Arroyo said it was mean to “insulate the BSP officials from the actuations of AMLC, especially the political ones that may be influenced by the council officials’ loyalty to their appointing authority. Arroyo also asserted the BSP “should be liberated from the burden of supervising the very rigorous demands of criminal investigation, such as those performed by AMLC.”
Image credits: Jason Arlan Raval