SENATE President Sherwin Gatchalian urged the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to scrutinize bank transactions linked to government projects to prevent corruption.
Gatchalian made the call during a Senate briefing on the proposed 2027 national budget, after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was asked about the AMLC’s capacity to detect suspicious transactions involving public funds.
“AMLC never detected that. Their response to us was that there is a huge volume of incoming documents that they are unable to analyze. But for me, that’s unacceptable because that’s precisely why AMLC exists: to stop all of these crimes from happening or blowing up at one time,” Gatchalian said, referring to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation into alleged irregularities in government flood control projects.
During the probe, SYMS Construction Trading owner Sally Santos said that she withdrew P457 million in cash in two transactions and delivered the money as alleged kickbacks to Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials.
Santos had specified that she withdrew P457 million in cash and later delivered the money to former Bulacan First District assistant engineer Brice Hernandez. She noted that she could have delivered as much as P1 billion in cash to Hernandez from 2022 onward.
The huge cash withdrawals came under scrutiny after senators questioned why the transactions were not flagged by the bank. Gatchalian said the episode showed the need for financial regulators to focus more closely on transactions involving government contractors and public funds.
The AMLC received an additional P162.9 million in its 2026 budget to strengthen its anti-money laundering capabilities. BSP Governor and AMLC Chairman Eli Remolona Jr. said in August that P125 million of the additional funding had been allocated to artificial intelligence capabilities, including capacity-building and the hiring of technical experts.
The additional funding increased the AMLC’s 2026 resources from the P170.161 million originally proposed in the National Expenditure Program to about P333 million under the enacted budget.
