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Philippine Leader: Anti-Money Laundering Sanctions Unfounded
Philippine Senate President Franklin Drilon allayed fears on Sunday that the country's economy will collapse if the United States and other countries impose sanctions on the Philippines if it does not pass an anti-money laundering bill by the end of September.
Drilon said the Senate will not work under a threat of sanctions and neither will they be rushed into passing a bill without carefully examining the laws and do what is best for the country, the ABS-BN news channel reported.
Drilon said he wants to carefully study the anti-money laundering laws of the United States, Switzerland and other developed countries and see how it compares with the bill.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) threatened in June to impose sanctions on the Philippines, together with Russia and the Pacific island nation of Nauru, if it fails to implement sufficient safeguards to prevent money laundering by September 30.
Last year, the FATF, an arm of the Group of Seven Industrialized Countries, included the Philippines in a list of 15 countries that are "non-cooperative" to anti-money laundering efforts.
The country has already completed a draft bill amending the New Central Bank Act of 1993. The bill gives regulators access to suspicious deposit accounts and the power to seize funds proven to have come from illegal activities.
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