The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is considering invoking the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA), which criminalizes the use of financial accounts to move illicit funds, to probe suspected graft and corruption cases, which is used with looser bank secrecy rules, could give authorities wider latitude to pursue a broader range of financial crimes.
Speaking to reporters, the central bank’s general counsel, Roberto Figueroa, said the BSP may invoke AFASA to trace illicit fund flows if criminals – including corrupt public officials – used financial accounts to move the proceeds. The 2024 law prohibits such acts, which it calls “money muling.”
According to Figueroa, it could provide enough legal basis for graft and corruption investigations. Under AFASA, convicted offenders face six to eight years in prison and fines of P100,000 to P500,000, as well as civil liabilities that may include restitution and forfeiture of assets used in the crime.
“If you’re a scammer, a fraud, a money launderer, or a politician engaged in graft and corruption, the reality is the money that you will embezzle will have to be transferred somewhere,” he said. “And in most instances, that would involve the use of a financial account.”
The BSP first applied AFASA in the expanding probe into fraudulent flood control projects, which has implicated lawmakers, Cabinet members, and government engineers.
However, the BSP is still supporting proposals to ease bank secrecy rules to allow authorities to probe other suspicious activities that may fall outside the scope of AFASA, which it deems necessary if the government is to mount a more serious crackdown against graft and corruption.
The BSP and the government will need all the tools that it can muster if it is to counter graft and corruption, which usually includes moving large amounts of money using the banking and financial system. If the AFASA is an effective tool, then it has to be supported by additional policies and initiatives that can make it more effective. If easing bank secrecy rules will be helpful, the government has to find ways to apply such improvements and more importantly, make them work together better.*
