Over 5,500 terrorism financing and 13,700 money laundering cases have been probed–DOJ
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday that it had identified a total of 5,557 cases of terrorism financing from 2020 to 2024, and at least six individuals were convicted of 114 counts of terrorism financing charges.
According to DOJ data released after the Philippines’ removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “gray list” for money laundering and terrorism financing, authorities made 71 arrests for terrorism financing activities and initiated 237 prosecutions.
The justice department highlighted as one of its milestones the prosecution of 794 individuals “accused of money laundering” from 2021 to 2024, saying that this underscores the DOJ’s “rigorous legal enforcement.”
“Additionally, a total of 13,799 money laundering investigations were conducted from 2021 to 2024, with 5,821 investigations in 2024 alone—more than double the number (from) 2021 to 2022,” the DOJ said in a statement.
The Paris-based FATF, an international watchdog on money laundering and terrorist financing, recently removed the Philippines from its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, a development expected to lower foreign remittance costs and improve investor perception of the country.
The decision marked the culmination of more than three years of efforts by the Philippine government to address all 18 deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing measures.
Lawyers and human rights groups, however, warned that this so-called achievement came at the cost of repression against legitimate grassroots movements, particularly civil society organizations and rights defenders who became targets of “fabricated” terrorism financing cases, arbitrary asset freezes, and financial exclusion.
