The House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries has approved a bill amending the anti-money laundering law that was certified as an urgent measure by President Benigno Aquino III, a press release from Congress said.

Rep. Sergio Apostol (2nd District, Leyte), chairman of the house body, said there is a need to comprehensively address the strategic deficiencies of RA 10167, which covered only two provisions of the AMLA through the needed reforms embodied in House Bill 6565.

The bill seeks to amend several provision of Republic Act 10167 specifically sections 10 and 11 of the law, the press release said.

House Bill 6565, authored by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II as contained in Committee Report No. 2434 substituted House Bills 6557 and 6611.

The new proposed measure, seeks to strengthen further the anti-money laundering law by making it compliant with updated and revised international anti-money laundering counter-terrorist financing standards, the press release said.

The bill, which defines money laundering as a crime under the AMLA, pertains only to the transaction or an attempted transaction of the proceeds of any unlawful activity as defined under the current law Act.

It does not include conversion, transfer, disposition, movement, acquisition, possession, use, concealment or disguise of the proceeds, the press release said.

The law also failed to comply with the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (the Vienna Convention), it added.

There is thus a need to revise or broaden the definition to include conversion, transfer, disposition, movement, acquisition, possession, use, concealment or disguise of the proceeds of any unlawful activity, the press release also said.

The bill provides, among others, for the Anti-Money Laundering Council the authority to file civil forfeiture cases upon determination of probable cause and impose administrative sanctions, the press release added.*

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