PH antimoney laundering push paying off; threats remain
The Philippines has shored up its defenses against money laundering, according to the government’s latest national risk assessment, though it warned that vulnerabilities remain and the overall threat from illicit financial flows is still high.
The third National Risk Assessment, covering 2021 to 2024, gave the country a score of 0.67 on a scale of zero to one for combating dirty money, a rating classified as “medium-high.” That marked an improvement from a score of 0.60 in the previous assessment.
The report attributed the gains to stronger antimoney laundering laws, a more active financial intelligence unit, tighter supervision and more frequent asset freezing and forfeiture.
Those improvements, in turn, helped the Philippines exit the global dirty money watch list. Last year, Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, removed the Philippines from its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, a category also known as the “gray list.”
Remedies
That decision wrapped up more than three years of the Philippines’ efforts to remedy all 18 deficiencies in the measures against illicit flow of funds. Those deficiencies dragged the Philippines back to the gray list in June 2021 and pushed it to the brink of being “blacklisted” as it was in 2002.
In a statement, Matthew David, executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), said authorities would use the findings of the latest risk assessment to strategically allocate its resources. The findings would also inform the development of a multiyear national strategy to combat dirty money from 2026 to 2030.
“These insights will enable the AMLC to concentrate its financial analysis and investigative efforts on high threats crimes, while also strengthening its supervisory focus on industries and channels identified as highly vulnerable to criminal and terrorist activities,” David said.
Despite the progress, the report said the national level of money laundering threat remained “high,” citing predicate crimes that generate large illicit proceeds, including drug trafficking, fraud, environmental crimes and tax offenses.
Overall vulnerability, however, was assessed as “medium,” with a score of 0.51, reflecting strengthened laws, institutions and controls.
Risks related to terrorism financing have eased since the previous assessment cycle, as domestic extremist groups weakened and intelligence coordination and oversight improved, particularly over nonprofit organizations.
Still, the report warned that risks persist in parts of Mindanao and in certain remittance channels.
