Philippines waits on sidelines of blacklist debate

Philippine lobbyists have been barred by a money-laundering watchdog from a debate on their attempt to have the Philippines removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist.

The debate will be held in private this week after the main session of the FATF Hong Kong summit on money laundering formally gets under way today.

Senator Francis Pangilinan, chairman of the committee that helped draft an anti-money-laundering law passed by Philippine legislators in September last year, was in Hong Kong earlier this week to urge a FATF working group to remove the nation from its list of non-complying countries and territories.

Along with 15 other blacklisted countries - including Indonesia and Russia - the Philippines faces counter-measures that require banks in FATF member countries to investigate and report in detail on capital flows in and out of the country.

Harsher measures were threatened if FATF judged the new anti-money-laundering provisions still inadequate after ordering the Philippines to tighten the new law.

Senator Pangilinan said yesterday: 'I spoke with some of the members and asked if we could sit in as observers when the plenary debated our submission.

'I believed it would be a matter of basic fairness. They are saying we have to make adjustments to our anti-money-laundering law and a change of policy, but if we are excluded from the debate how do we get a sense of the situation?'