Deputy Speaker Raymond Democrito Mendoza of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has backed President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s directive on the delisting of the Philippines from the global money laundering ‘grey list’ this year.
The President has ordered the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and relevant government agencies to ensure the delisting.
“We laud the President’s marching orders to fast-track the whole-of-government response for the full implementation of our national action plan, spearheaded by Executive Order No. 33 adopting the National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Strategy, to address all our deficiencies in combating money laundering,” Deputy Speaker Raymond Democrito Mendoza of the Trade
Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).
Mendoza said the President’s directive “is key to upgrading the credit rating of the Philippines and safguarding the overseas financial transactions and remittances from higher cost, stricter regulations,
and higher risk of disapprovals.”
The international organization Financial Action Task Force (FATF) provides international standards on how governments should tackle money laundering and terrorist financing. When countries fail to adhere to these FATF Standards, they are placed either in the ‘grey list’ for jurisdictions under increased monitoring or in the ‘black list’ for high-risk jurisdictions.
Out of the 18 recommended action plan items by the FATF for the Philippines to exit the grey list in 2021, there remain 8 action items that need to be addressed.
Mendoza, who sits as TUCP president and chair of the House committee on overseas workers affairs, stressed that “expediting the implementation of our national anti-money laundering strategy to address all lingering concerns and issues is only right and just to our OFWs and their families, especially since deployment rose to 2.3 million and remittances hit record-high 40 billion dollars in 2023.”
“As we face many global and domestic headwinds, we cannot expose this bright spot of our economy to further danger,” Mendoza said.
The TUCP, said Mendoza, stands ready to partner with the Marcos Administration as well as the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), which we established as the sanctuary of our millions of OFWs, to uphold the fundamental rights and promote the protection that our modern-day heroes duly deserve for their unmatched sacrifice for a good life of their families and for their heroic contribution to our economic recovery and development.