AMLC, BSP grilled over slow response to smuggled foreign cash

MANILA, Philippines — Senators did not hold back in questioning the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) over its rather slow response to cases of foreign cash that were suspiciously brought into the country.

In a hearing at the Senate on the alleged money laundering, crimes, and other activities associated with Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogos), Senator Richard Gordon asked why it took AMLC and BSP months to act on the letters sent by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) with regard to the apprehension of individuals who failed to properly declare their cash.

Gordon’s question came after BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier said that they started conducting their own investigation in February this year.

Fonacier said they only received the referral from the AMLC in January this year.

The letter, however, was fired off to BSP, AMLC, the Bureau of Immigration, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) as early as October 2019, Gordon said.

“You’re saying, February lang kayo nag-imbestiga, napakatagal naman. You defeat the purpose of the law,” Gordon said.

“Money Laundering Council depends on the apprehension of BOC. BOC does its job, submits its apprehension to Money Laundering Council and to BSP, as you did, and nothing was happening,” Gordon said.

Gordon believes there is a problem in the agencies’ bureaucracy.

“There’s a problem in your bureaucracy. You will meet one month and ten days after the intelligence transpires. Huli na! Huling-huli na! Nagastos na ‘yung pera, nakaikot na sa buong mundo ‘yung pera,” a visibly frustrated Gordon said. (That’s too late. The money has been spent and circulated.)

“I’m shocked beyond imagination. That’s bureaucracy at its worst form,” the lawmaker added.

No unlawful activity

AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Mel Georgie Racela, meanwhile, said they have raised concerns over the cases of questionable foreign cash inflows and had intelligence gatherings as early as March 2019.

“Hindi naman po namin pwedeng ma-share yung (We can’t share the) intelligence information without validating some facts,” Racela said.

Racela said they also requested information from their counterparts abroad on the individuals who are bringing questionable foreign cash into the country.

“We cannot establish money laundering as long as we do not establish the unlawful activity,” Racela said.

But Gordon argued that the same individuals or groups are serving as mules or carriers of the suspicious cash over and over again.

“Once you cannot establish the provenance of the money, what is the assumption? Money laundering. Hindi mo alam kung saan nanggaling yan e. And dapat kumita na ang gobyerno diyan, kinumpiska na natin (You don’t know the source of the money. The government should have confiscated the money and gained some revenue),” Gordon said, saying that the United States was able to collect $2.5 billion in 2019 from seized cash.

Racela argued that the legal framework of the United States is different from the Philippines.

“Unlike the set-up or legal framework in the US where they have an anti-bulk cash smuggling law, they reverse the presumption, the burden of proof. Under that law, the passengers who carry the bulk cash has the burden to prove that the source of funds is legitimate,” Racela said.

“Under our framework, that does not exist,” he added.

Gordon disagreed, with Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also stepping in to express his disapproval.

“That is why we have a suspicious transaction provision in our anti-money laundering law. And what is that? Transactions which are unusual and cannot be supported by an ordinary course of a business,” Drilon said.

In a privilege speech earlier this week, Gordon claimed Chinese and Filipino couriers were able to hand-carry more than $447 million into the country through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport from September 2019 to February this year.

Gordon speculated that much of the dollars that were questionably brought to the country could be being used for POGO.