Malacañang on Wednesday downplayed speculations the country may be blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force if the proposed bill insulating the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from the activities of the Anti-Money Laundering Council is passed into law.
“The Financial Action Task Force [FATF] potential blacklist over changes in the chairmanship of AMLC has no basis,” presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement.
Reports said that the FATF, an international body promoting policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing could again be included in the blacklist of non-cooperative countries if the bill strips the BSP of the chairmanship of the AMLC.
Uncertainty over the future of the anti-laundering body came after the proposal of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to ban the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor from supervising the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
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.