Bill filed to empower gov’t to scrutinize bank accounts sans court order

MANILA, Philippines—Amid possible retaliatory attacks by al-Qaida operatives, the Senate is set to deliberate on a proposed law empowering the government to scrutinize—and even freeze—the accounts of suspected financiers of terrorists even without a court order.

Sen. Edgardo Angara filed the “Terrorist Financing Suppression Act of 2011,” arguing that “terrorist financing should be criminalized even without an actual terrorist act taking place.”

“Authorities must be able to prevent terrorists from having access to funds, penalize them and their financiers,” he said in Senate Bill No. 2676’s explanatory note.

“The proposed bill is designed to provide duly constituted authorities with ample powers allowing them to inquire into bank accounts sans a court order and freeze terrorist funds without delay, while providing safeguards to the rights of innocent third parties.”

Angara added: “Realizing the transnational nature of terrorism and its financing, the proposed bill will allow local authorities to take pre-emptive and remedial action, request foreign assistance, including extradition of suspects, whenever the intended victims of a terrorist attack are Filipinos, its government or institutions.”

Let us cut, if not eliminate, the funding sources to prevent terrorism from happening,” he said. “Enacting a stand-alone anti-terrorist financing law will show how serious the Philippines is in weeding out this evil.”

Under SB 2676, a financier of a terrorist will suffer a jail term from a minimum of 17 years to a maximum of 40 years. The same penalty, which will include a fine of between P500,000 and P1 million, will also apply to “persons who conspire to commit the crime of terrorist financing.”

Angara’s proposal also allows the Court of Appeals to issue a freeze order upon ex-parte application by the Anti-Money Laundering Council and “after determination that probable cause exists that any property or funds are in any way related to terrorist financing.”

The freeze order will be effective for 30 days and could be extended for a maximum period of six months.

“We should remain vigilant. We must not let our guard down because we see how these terrorist cells evolve—we should assume that another has taken his place to lead the terrorist group,” Angara said the day after al-Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden was killed in a top-secret US operation in Pakistan.

“It is a known fact that terrorism is mainly dependent on funding. To prevent these heinous acts, authorities must be able to block their access to their money and penalize the financers even without an actual terrorist act taking place,” he added.