Arroyo seeks to limit BSP control over AMLC

Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (Photo by LYN RILLON/Philippine Daily Inquirer)

House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has proposed to limit the overseeing powers of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) over the Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC), citing how the council has been used “as a tool of selective justice.”
A statement released by Arroyo’s office on Monday made no mention of former President Benigno Aquino III but was apparently alluding to him.

The proposed provision would “insulate the BSP officials from the actuations of AMLC, especially the political ones which may be influenced by the council officials’ loyalty to their appointing authority.”

“The BSP should be liberated from the burden of supervising the very rigorous demands of criminal investigation such as those performed by AMLC,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo proposed an additional amendment to Section 128 of House Bill No. 731, which seeks to modify the Central Bank Act. Arroyo’s proposal seeks to prohibit the BSP “from supervising the operations of the AMLC,” although its governor could still serve as a member of the council.

Arroyo spared BSP Governor and AMLC Chairman Amando Tetangco Jr., whom she appointed when she was president and whom Aquino retained throughout his six-year term.

Arroyo said Tetangco was a “fine career technocrat… who served the BSP itself with distinction.” But career technocrats like him “do not have the temperament and training to supervise criminal investigations such as those conducted by the AMLC.”

She said the AMLC “has been acting much on its own with regard to its investigations, without bothering to get specific clearances from the BSP governor.”

“The AMLC, whose officers were appointed by the previous administration, has demonstrated the potential of being used as a tool of selective justice,” Arroyo said. “In the previous administration, grossly inaccurate information on the alleged bank accounts of then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte and other perceived opponents of the officers’ appointing authority were leaked out.”

“In contrast, information is now being withheld from authorized investigators on the bank accounts of certain persons under investigation, who happen to be identified with the previous authority which appointed them, and to whom they seem to owe their allegiance,” she added.

Arroyo apparently echoed President Duterte’s frustration over AMLC. Duterte has accused the AMLC of being an obstacle in his campaign against illegal drugs, which has turned into a bloody war where most of the nearly 6,000 suspected drug users and pushers were indigents.

Duterte also accused the AMLC of “corruption” and threatened to treat the council members like drug addicts.

The Duterte administration has complained that AMLC has not provided the Department of Justice with the financial information on Sen. Leila de Lima, whom the President has accused of running the drug trafficking at the national penitentiary. /ATM