Solons push for bill to address bulk cash smuggling into PH
Published Mar 9, 2020 12:00 am
By Ben Rosario
Leaders of the House of Representatives are crossing party lines in pushing for a bill that would plug loopholes in the country’s anti-money laundering efforts.
House of the Representatives (Facebook)
Led by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte-Salceda, chairman of the House committee on ways and means, the lawmakers have agreed that there is no law that would address money laundering schemes through the smuggling of cash into the country such as the one exposed in the Senate by Sen. Richard Gordon.
Gordon initiated a Senate blue ribbon committee investigation into allegations that $210 million in cash was brought recently into the country by foreign syndicates.
Salceda led the filing yesterday of House Bill (HB) No. 6516 which will prohibit bulk cash smuggling into or out of the Philippines.
Joining him as co-authors of the bill are Reps. Estrellita Suansing (PDP-Laban, Nueva Ecija), Rozzano Rufino Biazon (PDP-Laban, Muntinlupa City), Sharon Garin (AAMBIS OWA party list), and Stella Luz Quimbo (LP, Marikina), a member of the House opposition.
Authors of HB 6516 said bulk cash smuggling is a serious national security concern.
“Bulk cash smuggling, suspected to be in the billions of pesos, is enough to shift political fortunes and corrupt institutions in the country, facilitating crime and other illegal activities,” they said in the explanatory notes of the bill.
Four syndicates were identified as being behind the P28.6 billion in foreign currency imported into the country in 2019.
The bill authors warned that the inability of the country’s financial authorities to act against the smuggling has placed Philippines at risk of being listed on the Financial Action Task Force for being “a high risk base for terrorism financing and money laundering.”
HB 6516, in effect, will expand the coverage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 to include one-time cash transports of more than P500,000 at any one time.
Under the bill, the Anti-Money Laundering Council will be granted the authority to define a cumulation of closely-related events that would constitute “one-time” smuggling of cash.
“In view of the urgency of the need for a response to the currently unmitigated influx of bulk cash into the Philippines, and given the critical importance of a policy response to the threats that bulk cash smuggling poses for peace and order, national security, and institutional and financial integrity, the immediate enactment of this bill is urgently sought,” the authors wrote.
Under the bill, a mandatory report will be required from a “person or an agent or bailee of a person” if he or she is aware of transporting monetary instruments of over P500,000 or its equivalent currency at one time from a place in the Philippines or through a place outside the country.
The report should be sent to the AMLC immediately
Persons found guilty of intentionally evading the currency reporting requirement shall be deemed guilty of the currency smuggling offense.
The penalty for violation of the provisions of the law ranges from seven to 14 years imprisonment and forfeiture of the convicted person’s property within the Philippines.
House of the Representatives (Facebook)
Led by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte-Salceda, chairman of the House committee on ways and means, the lawmakers have agreed that there is no law that would address money laundering schemes through the smuggling of cash into the country such as the one exposed in the Senate by Sen. Richard Gordon.
Gordon initiated a Senate blue ribbon committee investigation into allegations that $210 million in cash was brought recently into the country by foreign syndicates.
Salceda led the filing yesterday of House Bill (HB) No. 6516 which will prohibit bulk cash smuggling into or out of the Philippines.
Joining him as co-authors of the bill are Reps. Estrellita Suansing (PDP-Laban, Nueva Ecija), Rozzano Rufino Biazon (PDP-Laban, Muntinlupa City), Sharon Garin (AAMBIS OWA party list), and Stella Luz Quimbo (LP, Marikina), a member of the House opposition.
Authors of HB 6516 said bulk cash smuggling is a serious national security concern.
“Bulk cash smuggling, suspected to be in the billions of pesos, is enough to shift political fortunes and corrupt institutions in the country, facilitating crime and other illegal activities,” they said in the explanatory notes of the bill.
Four syndicates were identified as being behind the P28.6 billion in foreign currency imported into the country in 2019.
The bill authors warned that the inability of the country’s financial authorities to act against the smuggling has placed Philippines at risk of being listed on the Financial Action Task Force for being “a high risk base for terrorism financing and money laundering.”
HB 6516, in effect, will expand the coverage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 to include one-time cash transports of more than P500,000 at any one time.
Under the bill, the Anti-Money Laundering Council will be granted the authority to define a cumulation of closely-related events that would constitute “one-time” smuggling of cash.
“In view of the urgency of the need for a response to the currently unmitigated influx of bulk cash into the Philippines, and given the critical importance of a policy response to the threats that bulk cash smuggling poses for peace and order, national security, and institutional and financial integrity, the immediate enactment of this bill is urgently sought,” the authors wrote.
Under the bill, a mandatory report will be required from a “person or an agent or bailee of a person” if he or she is aware of transporting monetary instruments of over P500,000 or its equivalent currency at one time from a place in the Philippines or through a place outside the country.
The report should be sent to the AMLC immediately
Persons found guilty of intentionally evading the currency reporting requirement shall be deemed guilty of the currency smuggling offense.
The penalty for violation of the provisions of the law ranges from seven to 14 years imprisonment and forfeiture of the convicted person’s property within the Philippines.