Too much power yet seeking for more

“This is not a guarantee that another president and another regime will be leaving the Council alone, as such occurrences depend on the AMLC official appointed, and the president of the Philippines.

It has more than enough powers already, yet the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) wants more, and is reportedly pushing for amendments to the country’s anti-money laundering and human security laws to raise the country’s compliance to international standards.

The reason given by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is that the Council wants the amendments after deficiencies were claimed to have been found in the country’s technical compliance with international anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing standards, and in the effectiveness of its existing mechanisms.

Perhaps if all these years, the AMLC had proven itself to be a non-partisan, apolitical Council, few would complain whenever it seeks amendments to the anti-money laundering law.

However, it has been proven that the AMLC, under the reign of the yellow president, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, was more than willing to be used as a political tool against his political foes.

To prove just how political and partisan the AMLC circa the Aquino regime was, the Council not only made public the bank deposits of the then presidential foes, such as the then opposition senators Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla, but also gave highly misleading statements to portray the accused as guilty of having gotten millions from the alleged plunder brains, Janet Lim Napoles, which were fabricated “evidence.”

Even money earned legitimately was deemed by the then AMLC as evidence of plunder, despite the fact of a clear lack of evidence from the Council as it failed to prove that the money came from Napoles.

The AMLC then even leaked to reporters bank deposits of the named senators, adding them up with billions which were claimed as being part of the plundered loot.

The then Ombudsman, Conchita Carpio-Morales; her deputy, who was ousted from his post for trying to pin “dirty money” on President Duterte and passing it off as an authentic report from the AMLC; and then Justice secretary, the now detained Sen. Leila de Lima, who also used it to come up with trumped up charges against the senators while protecting the other yellow senators, all were in cahoots in fabricating evidence and even using the AMLC to make the falsified documents appear to be coming from the Council itself.

This time, however, with Duterte in the presidential saddle, the AMLC was quick to officially deny that the falsified bank deposits were not from the Council.

De Lima also used the National Bureau of Investigation, which was under her supervision, to fool around with the evidence from computers, again to get the political foes of Leila’s political patron detained for years on end.

It will also have to be recalled, to again prove just how brazenly partisan was the AMLC, another incident came about during the impeachment trial of then sitting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Renato Corona. Bank dollar deposits in Corona’s account, which he said represented his legitimately earned money, was in the hands of then Ombudsman Morales. She even gave a fake reading, or what she called “analysis,” of some $12 million in the Corona dollar deposits in close to 100 bank accounts. In reality, these claimed bank accounts were money placements made by the bank for Corona through the years. She committed perjury, yet was never charged.

While it can be said that today, under the Duterte regime, the AMLC has not been seen dabbling in politics — at least as far as providing the Ombudsman or Justice Secretary or the Deputy Ombudsman with fabricated bank deposits showing billions — it is mainly because of today’s political leadership that has not politicized the agency.

However, this is not a guarantee that another president and another regime will be leaving the Council alone, as such occurrences depend on the AMLC official appointed, and the president of the Philippines.

And this should be reason enough not to get the AMLC powers expanded. One of the salient provisions of the council’s proposed amendments to Republic Act 9160 is the inclusion, as “covered persons, of real estate developers, brokers and sales agents to perform obligations of customer due diligence, recordkeeping and suspicious transaction reporting,” as well as including additional predicate offenses to money laundering, such as certain tax crimes; and proliferation financing by managing the trade in strategic or dual-use goods, which it identified as “materials that may be utilized in manufacturing nuclear weapons.”

The Philippines can hardly be categorized as a nuclear power even in ASEAN, yet the AMLC wants included in the definition “proliferation of weapons of mass destruction” to the law. It stressed, “This will lay down the framework for the implementation of targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation financing.”

Until the country can demand a check on the United States’ ships in the country, as well as its bases, for nuclear arms, and even get these US sailors to go through Philippine immigration, it is much too silly and useless for the AMLC to even seek these useless amendments.

The AMLC certainly has enough powers without new amendments to the law. What it should do is to ensure that the agency can never again be used as a political tool against Filipinos and for the Council never be partisan ever again.