DFNN’s Executive Chairman and Founder, Ramon Garcia Jr., says that the Philippines is “doing the best it can” to be removed from FATF’s gray list.
During the panel discussion on Investment Outlook – Philippines versus Asia at the ASEAN Gaming Summit held in Manila, Garcia notes that technology will probably reach the capability to trace funds used for illegal activities.
The Philippines has been included on the gray list of the global anti-dirty money watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) due to issues with junket operators, the lack of prosecutions and investigations into money laundering and terrorist financing.
Although the Philippine president has ordered the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and concerned agencies to implement measures to exit the gray list by October of this year, the latest review last month decided to keep the Philippines on the list.
In June 2021, the Paris-based FATF re-included the Philippines in the gray list following the country’s failure in a mutual evaluation conducted by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering.
During the evaluation, the body pinpointed 18 deficiencies in the Philippines’ efforts to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. According the update in January this year, eight of these deficiencies remain unresolved.
In this context, Garcia takes this with “a grain of salt.” Under his observation, some Western judgments are “not necessarily right,” as he has mentioned failure stories regarding supervision of the Philippines’ stock markets.
When discussing the investment environment in the Philippines, Garcia indicates that the country is a very good destination for investment. In the online gaming area, he mentions that the fast growth of the Internet allows the country’s online gaming market to become one of the most booming.
