THE chief of the Philippine National Police announced the PNP is working with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to address the concerns raised by the Financial Action Task that maintained the Philippines in the FATF “grey list.”
The country joined at least 22 other countries in the list of “jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies” to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and “proliferation financing.”
PNP Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar said last Monday that steps were being taken in partnership with the AMLC and other agencies concerned to stop any effort to finance terrorist groups in the country and also address the other issues raised by the global dirty money watchdog.
In including the Philippines in its list, the FATF declared that the country needed to develop strategies to effectively address terrorist financing and money laundering.
Eleazar pointed out that the PNP has already entered into a number of agreements with the AMLC for the effective enforcement of Republic Act 10168 or the “Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.”
He noted that the PNP and the AMLC signed a memorandum of agreement last February to solidify coordination and boost efforts in enforcing provisions of RA 10168.
“This is in addition to the past individual memorand[a] of agreement entered into by AMLC with various PNP offices and units such as the DIDM, CIDG and IG, to beef up the campaign against terrorist financing,” the PNP chief said.
The MOA between the PNP and AMLC provides for the establishment of a center at the national police headquarters at Camp Crame that will serve as an information-sharing hub between the two agencies.
“The center enables us to efficiently exchange information and intelligence, maximize resources, streamline operations, and improve capabilities to fight money laundering, terrorist financing and other crimes,” Eleazar said.
The PNP chief said he is confident that inter-agency programs and efforts against terrorist financing and money laundering would bear fruit and remove the country from the list.
“Terrorism financing is a scourge on our country and the Filipino people. We need to always be on alert and come up with measures to stop the flow of money to these terrorist groups who would use these funds to carry out possible attacks,” Eleazar said.
He added that the PNP anticipates the Philippines would be able to exit the grey list by the target date of January 2023.