The Subic Bay Freeport is one of the active doors that open up the Philippines to foreign direct investments, not just in the financial sector, but more so in the industrial, logistics, maritime, and services sectors.
The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) with its new chairman and administrator, Eduardo Aliño, is therefore one of the agencies of the national government which are most interested in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s objective of the nation’s exit from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog fighting dirty money.
The region of Central Luzon, including Olongapo City, Bulacan, Bataan, Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga has thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who suffer and will continue to do so because of the Philippines’ long stay in the FATF grey list.
Thus, President Marcos recently directed the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and concerned agencies to put measures in place so that the country may exit the grey list by early this year. The order was also addressed to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona Jr.
The grey list contains countries or jurisdictions under increased monitoring and are required to actively work with the FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. A jurisdiction under increased monitoring is required to swiftly resolve identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes.
There are 23 countries in the grey list, including the Philippines.
“We’ve directed the AMLC to accelerate action plans to combat money laundering and counter terrorist financing, and to file cases against violators,” the President said on Facebook.
“We’re committed to safeguarding our OFWs by making their transactions safer, reducing costs and easing regulatory burdens to support them,” he added.
The Paris-based FATF re-included the Philippines in the grey list in June 2021 after the country failed a mutual evaluation by Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering.
The body had identified 18 deficiencies in the country’s measures against money laundering and terrorist and proliferation financing. Of the total number, eight are still outstanding.
The Philippines still has to address effective risk-based supervision of non-financial businesses and professions; controls to mitigate risks associated with casino junkets; enhancing access to beneficial ownership information; demonstrating an increase in the money laundering and terrorism financing investigations and prosecutions; and application of cross-border measures to all main seaports and international airports in the country. This last item directly concerns the Subic Freeport.
The Subic Freeport’s business will greatly benefit if our economic managers, legislators, prosecutors and judges work together to attain a situation wherein the Philippines would finally be free from the FATF grey list.