http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNation.htm?f=2011/march/9/nation1.isx&d=2011/march/9

THE Anti-Money Laundering Council pressed the Senate Tuesday for blanket authority to freeze suspicious bank accounts without any need for court orders.

In the proposed set of amendments to the existing law submitted by the AMLC to the Senate subcommittee on Anti-Money Laundering, executive director Vicente Aquino asked that the council be allowed to apply “ex-parte” proceedings to have a “self-executory” freeze order on suspected assets.

This would bypass the practice of applying for a court order where the Court of Appeals notifies asset owners or account depositors of the impending financial investigation to allow appeal within 20 days, Aquino said.

The move would also pre-empt depositors and asset owners from closing or transferring assets in question to other accounts.

Aquino said the AMLC should be exempted from the rule of absolute confidentiality as espoused by the Supreme Court in its ruling in the case of Republic of the Philippines, represented by the AMLC as petitioner, versus Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 34 presiding judge Antonio M. Eugenio Jr. and Lilia Cheng, on Feb. 14, 2008.

“The said ruling has emasculated the government’s bank inquiry process,” Aquino said.

But while the Bankers Association of the Philippines said it “generally agrees” with legislation to strengthen the anti-money laundering law, thrift and rural banks balked at the law’s requirements.

The Chamber of Thrift Banks said the P100,000-penalty for failure to report suspicious transactions is a substantial amount that could compromise a small bank’s capital integrity.

The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines also complained against the requirement obligating bank officers to know the persons behind corporate accounts, saying this was the work of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Meanwhile, Sen. Sergio Osmeña III sought the inclusion of bribery, corruption of public officers, fraud, illegal exactions and transactions, forgeries, counterfeiting, trafficking of persons, carnapping, environmental crimes, and malversation of public funds and property in an expanded anti-money laundering law.

The council sought powers to investigate and criminalize acts of conversion or transfer of assets derived from these offenses, as well as concealment and disguise, fencing, and even mere possession of assets and properties.

It also wants to include a confidentiality provision in its mandate prohibiting the disclosure of their investigations to boost the prosecution of laundering cases.