AMLC says PHL unlikely to return to ‘gray list’

THE Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) on Monday said the Philippines is unlikely to return to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “gray list,” despite a probe into allegations that former Public Works engineers laundered billions of pesos through casinos using funds meant for flood-control projects.

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Asked if the Philippines may once again be included in the FATF’s, gray list, AMLC Executive Director Matthew M. David said: “Hindi, hindi totoo ‘yun (No, that isn’t true).”

“We're doing our best for the Philippines not to enter the gray list anymore,” he told reporters in Filipino on the sidelines of a Senate briefing on Monday.

The FATF removed the Philippines from its gray list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring for “dirty money” in February.

Mr. David said the Philippines is now preparing for the FATF’s next mutual evaluation in 2027.

Mutual evaluation is a process wherein the FATF, through the Asia Pacific Group for Money Laundering, assesses the Philippines for its compliance with the FATF recommendations and standards, he said.

However, Mr. David said the AMLC is now working on tracking potential money laundering by individuals involved in anomalous flood-control projects.

He said they are looking into the covered transaction reports (CTRs) and suspicious transaction reports (STRs) that have been filed to uncover possible money laundering.

“Because of the recent events regarding the flood-control project involving our public officials and the contractors, what we did was identify if there is a money laundering aspect through corruption,” he told reporters in Filipino.

“We see those from the CTRs, from the STRs, which were submitted by the covered persons including casinos and banks.”