SENATE President Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday urged Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona Jr. to strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) as he warned that corruption and the resulting slowdown in government spending are emerging as major threats to the Philippine economy.
During the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) briefing at the Senate, Gatchalian said the country’s economic outlook this year could be summed up in two words: conflict and corruption.
Gatchalian said the controversy surrounding government flood control projects has slowed public spending, particularly in the construction sector.
He said the BSP and the AMLC have a critical role in detecting suspicious financial transactions linked to corruption.
As an example, Gatchalian cited a case involving a LandBank account that he said was opened by Sen. Francis Pangilinan and from which P500 million was withdrawn in cash on multiple occasions.
He said the Senate had pushed for additional resources for the AMLC after concerns emerged over its capacity to analyze the huge volume of financial transactions reported by banks.
He noted that an additional P162 million was allocated to the AMLC last year to improve its ability to detect suspicious transactions.
“The price of oil, we can't control it, but corruption, we can control that, eliminate or mitigate it,” he said.
Gatchalian asked Remolona, who chairs the AMLC, what reforms have been implemented to prevent large suspicious transactions from going undetected.
He said corruption not only drains public resources but can also have wider economic consequences because the government’s response may result in a sharp reduction in spending.
Remolona acknowledged the challenges faced by the AMLC but said the council has begun using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its analysis of financial transaction reports.
He explained that the AMLC receives two major categories of reports from financial institutions: Covered Transaction Reports (CTRs) for transactions exceeding P500,000 and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) filed when banks identify transactions they consider suspicious.
The sheer volume of reports makes manual analysis difficult, Remolona said.
“That's millions and millions of STRs that came to us. Every day there are many,” he said.
The AMLC is now using AI-assisted tools to identify red flags in both STRs and CTRs and help investigators determine which transactions require closer scrutiny.
Remolona also explained that the AMLC’s authority is subject to legal limitations.
When investigators identify a potentially suspicious transaction, he said the council must build a sufficiently strong case before seeking a freeze order from the Court of Appeals.
There must be a predicate crime underlying the suspected money-laundering activity, and the application must establish probable cause, he said.
Remolona said the AMLC also faces restrictions arising from bank secrecy laws, limiting its direct access to the underlying bank accounts based solely on the transaction reports it receives.
“We don't have the power, because of bank secrecy, to look into the bank accounts themselves. We only have STR and CTR,” he said.
