U.S. helps Philippines talk with antimoney laundering body
U.S. helps Philippines talk with antimoney laundering body
Agence France-Presse, Manila
U.S. officials have been helping the Philippines secure a
dialogue with representatives of an international anti-money
laundering task force which has threatened sanctions against
Manila, Filipino officials said on Sunday.
Filipino officials were coordinating with the U.S. Treasury
Department to convince the Paris-based Financial Action Task
Force (FATF) to hold a dialogue with Manila to resolve issues
over money laundering law, senior presidential adviser Gabriel
Claudio said.
U.S. envoy to Manila Francis Ricciardone was also helping with
coordination with the FATF," Claudio said.
Earlier this month FATF recommended additional counter-
measures against the Philippines beginning March 15 if the
government failed to plug what it calls loopholes in its 2001
laundering law.
Congress had beaten a Feb. 12 deadline to pass amendments, but
the FATF, set up by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, said the new measures failed to address "previously
identified deficiencies" in the law.
Arroyo last week called on the U.S. government to urge fellow
FATF members to hold off implementing the sanctions which could
effect the billions of dollars in annual remittances by overseas
Filipino workers.
Government had also invited FATF to send a team to hold a
dialogue with Philippine legislators and to come up with a
consensus on amendments to the law.
"The idea is that they (should) talk directly and they hear
directly from each other what are the contentious issues,"
President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Sunday.
"They (legislators) know what they're doing and they know the
situation in the Philippines which they could explain to the
FATF," he said.
The FATF also retained the Philippines on its list of so-
called non-cooperative countries, which also include the Cook
Islands, Egypt, Grenada, Guatemala, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru,
Nigeria, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Ukraine.
The 13-year-old FATF was formed to combat tax evasion and
drug-related money laundering schemes.