Villar open to giving more powers to AMLC

Property tycoon and former Senator Manuel Villar Jr.  has no qualms about potentially subjecting the real estate industry to tight reporting obligations or to giving powers to the Anti-Monetary Laundering Council (AMLC) to pry into bank deposits—as long as these won’t be used for politics.

Senator Sergio Osmeña III, who chairs the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies, has renewed calls to extend the coverage of the anti-money laundering law to also include casinos, real estate and art dealers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also wants the AMLC—the agency mandated to implement the anti-money laundering law—to have the power to immediately freeze suspicious bank accounts or inquire into or examine bank deposits without a court order.

“We have no problem,” Villar said, “As long as it’s not being used for political purposes.”

Asked if he thought that the AMLC was already being used for political purposes, he said: “I don’t know.”

Villar said he favored a strengthening of the anti-money laundering law to give more comfort to the country.

The Philippines recently caught international attention when $81 million in dirty money—funds stolen by hackers from the central bank of Bangladesh’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York— slipped into the financial system and found its way to local casinos and other entities.

“Nilalabas naman ng AMLC lahat (It seems that AMLA is leaking everything,” Villar said.

“AMLC is already very powerful but even if it’s a powerful institution, if somebody wants to commit a crime, it’s not a deterrent. Like it’s bad to kill but it doesn’t mean nobody commits murder,” he said.

On subjecting the real estate industry to AMLC’s reportorial obligations, Villar said the current threshold for transactions or deposits that must be reported—at P500,000—was already equivalent to a house.