Jul.02, 2010, 3:39pm

The Philippines' Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is reorganizing in anticipation of a lot more investigations of suspicious transactions as banks intensify anti-money laundering efforts to comply with regulations, both local and international.

The Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is currently studying proposals to reorganize the AMLC Secretariat, for one, which is located within the BSP complex in Malate, Manila.

Based on documents, AMLC is proposing to create at least 19 more positions, mostly with the Office of the Governor of the central bank, as per Resolution No. 227 approved recently.

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. chairs the AMLC while Securities and Exchange Commission's Fe Barin and Insurance Commission's Santiago Ranada are members. At the moment, the BSP-based office consists of four units -- the Compliance and Investigation Group, the Legal Evaluation Group, the Information Management and Analysis Group and the Administrative and Financial Services Division.

The council, currently headed by Executive Director and Assistant Governor Vicente Aquino, considers itself a "world-class financial intelligence unit" or FIU, whose functions is to investigate and cause the prosecution of money laundering offenses in the Philippines.

In June alone, the BSP released six AMLC circular letters to all financial institutions to remind banks to be vigilant and expose terrorist financing.

To ensure compliance with the 2001 Anti-Money Laudering Act, the BSP may inquire into or examine any deposit or investment with any banking institution or non-bank financial institution when the examination is made "in the course of a periodic or special examination in accordance with the rules of examination of the BSP."

In the meantime, AMLC forge agreements with other FIUs to toughen up efforts against global money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Basically, it is a central office that obtains and analyzes financial reports and then discloses it to appropriate government agencies and other FIUs.

"Our law authorizes us to extend assistance in transactional investigation and prosecution of persons involved in money laundering activities wherever committed, but we still pursue MOUs (to protect against) changes in administration, political system so they have to honor agreements as part of the international community," said Aquino in a previous interview.

All information exchanged by FIU members is subjected to strict controls and safeguards to ensure it is used only in an authorized manner, consistent with national provisions on privacy and data protection.

To allow it more teeth in tracking down suspected dirty money perpetrators, AMLC requires government institutions to directly coordinate with the council for a more efficient transfer of material data.

Money laundering is illegal in the Philippines. The crime is defined as a scheme where the proceeds of specified unlawful activities are transacted to make them appear to have originated from legitimate sources.

In 2007, former President Gloria M. Arroyo signed into law the anti-terror bill, but many considers the amended AMLA as sufficient enough, especially after it included the prosecution of "predicate crimes and unlawful activities that generates dirty money." These consist of kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking, graft and corruption, plunder, robbery and extortion, piracy, qualified theft, swindling and smuggling, among others.