ANTI-MONEY Laundering Council executive director Julia Bacay-Abad officially announced her resignation from her post Monday, saying “recent developments” made her realize the agency would be more effective under a new leadership.
Her resignation takes effect today.
“… The recent developments that confronted the AMLC and its Secretariat gave me the occasion to realize that, though already resilient on its own, the AMLC Secretariat will be accorded with renewed strength through a transformed strategy. To be more effective, the direction that the AMLC Secretariat will prospectively take would have to come from a new leadership,” Abad said in a statement sent to the press.
“This is not a decision that was taken lightly but I believe this is the right time for me to voluntarily relinquish my post as the executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat effective 31 January 2017,” Abad said.
Earlier reports (not in Manila Standard) speculated her resignation was due to the rumored low morale in the agency especially when President Rodrigo Duterte criticized its officials in his speeches.
The President in November warned AMLC and even Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to “cooperate or I will go to you.”
Abad said while the AMLC Secretariat strived to effectively discharge its functions, its hands remain tied and confronted with limitations in the form of legal and procedural restrictions that have repeatedly hampered the fast and efficient procurement of legal remedies.
“I am deeply honored and humbled to have worked for more than 10 years in the AMLC Secretariat with capable men and women of unsullied integrity who decided to dedicate themselves to be vanguards in this war against money laundering and terrorism financing. In putting the interest of the country first, I have witnessed how these men and women risk not only their lives but as well as that of their families in the performance of their duties,” she said.
She said the Council, the Secretariat, and the rest of the government and law enforcement agencies that supported the cause of the AMLC had all made great steps in creating a financial system that is not only stable and secure but one that has integrity.
“I am confident the next Executive Director of the AMLC Secretariat would not only continue the work that we have done, but renew its strength as an institution,” she said.
She said her loyalty to the government and to the Filipino people would remain steadfast and reassured she would continue to serve this government in the best of her ability albeit in a different capacity.
Abad cited the recent accomplishments of the agency, including the amendments of the Anti-Money Laundering Act through the passage of Republic Act Nos. 10167 and 10365 to address the deficiencies earlier identified by the Financial Action Task Force in the country’s anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regime.
With the enactment of the said laws, the country was saved from being blacklisted by the FATF.
In June 2013, after an on-site visit to the country conducted by the FATF, the Philippines was finally removed from the FATF list of monitored jurisdictions.
In 2013 and 2014, the AMLC Secretariat simultaneously investigated several high profile cases which were predicated on plunder and/or corruption cases then being investigated by the Office of the Ombudsman.
“Despite challenges on the AMLC Secretariat’s resources, its probe resulted in the freezing of multimillion pesos and, eventually, ripen into forfeiture cases now pending in court. One of the cases resulted in a civil forfeiture case filed by the AMLC before the Regional Trial Court in Manila against bank deposits, investments and other assets amounting to around P346 million and $697 thousand,” she said.
Early in 2016, the Secretariat investigated the Bangladesh Bank heist which led to the filing of civil forfeiture cases against the funds and properties involved in the cybercrime heist, as well as criminal complaints for money laundering against the responsible bank officers and employees.
A partial judgment in the civil forfeiture cases was obtained in favor of the government in July 2016, forfeiting the amount of $4,630,000 and P488,280,000, which was eventually turned over to the Government of Bangladesh.
As of September 2016, a total P4.061 billion worth of funds and properties have been made the subject of pending civil forfeiture cases initiated by the AMLC.
Also in 2016, the Secretariat obtained a money laundering conviction in Cebu of a double-crossing kidnapper-murderer, Alfredo Baclado, and a judgment in a civil forfeiture case forfeiting in favor of the Government a real property used as a shabu laboratory by notorious drug traffickers in Tanza, Cavite.