Sen. Mark Villar reiterated the need for the passage of the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA) that would, not only provide for a penalty after the fact, but one that effectively responds to or even prevent criminals from facilitating various forms of financial scams.
In a statement, Villar expressed his distaste for the heinous acts of scammers and opportunists who are continuously victimizing Filipinos.
“Trust is the currency of banking and finance. We need to strengthen our financial institutions para mapanatag ang ating mga kapwa Pilipino (so fellow Filipinos would be confident) to conduct their financial transactions,” the senator said.
Villar, Chairperson of the Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies successfully led the discussion on 3 Senate Resolutions, 6 Senate Bills, and 1 House Bill, collectively called the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act or AFASA on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
“There is a dramatic rise in cyber financial crimes such as online selling scams, investment scams, loan scams, and love scams among others. We are made aware that these kinds of schemes and scams are rapidly evolving,” Senator Villar said.
During the hearing, the senator posed inquiries to the stakeholders present including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Gcash, and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) among others, on the current security measures being used by financial institutions to secure transactions between and among consumers.
“We should have a good grasp of the current practices in use so that we could use them to springboard the additional practices that we would include in AFASA. We have to continuously improve our legal system, and if possible, be two steps ahead of the scammers at all times to effectively protect the public from their nefarious acts,” the lawmaker insisted.
The panel has wrapped up the public hearing for the AFASA bill and will move to the formation of a technical working group (TWG). The TWG will be conducted to finalize the substitute bill for AFASA.