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Bill filed to criminalize bulk cash smuggling
BY JovEE MARIE N; DELA CRUZ
t @joveemarie
'froLLowlNG the entrv of
p billiorr" worth of cold cash,
I lawmakers on Monday filed
House Bill 6516 criminalizing the
cash smuggling into or out of the
Philippines.
HB 6516 or the Anti-Bulk Cash
Smuggling was filed by House Com-
mittee on Ways and Means Chair-
man Joey Sarte Salceda, and the
committee'svicechairmenEstrellita
Suansingand SharonCarin, Munt in.
lupa Rep. Aozzano Rufino Biazon and
Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo.
t--The bill criminalizes bulk cash
Tuesdav, March
!!l
smrrggling, ensuring that the
evasion of a papet trail for cash
transfers is not tolerated under
the law.
It expands the coverage of the
Anti-MoneyLaunderingAct of 2001
(Amla) to include one-time cash
transportp of more than P500,000
atanyone time. This also empowers
the Anti-Money Laundering Coun-
cil (AMLC) to define a cumulation
of closelyrelated events that would
constitute 'bne time."
The measure, likewise, includes
the Bureau of the Treasury, through
the Treasurer ofthe Philippines, in
theAMLC to facilitate counterpart
to-counterpart cooperation,
as
lO 2o20
many countries' anti-money laun-
dering efforts are spearheaded by
their Secretaries or Ministersrof
the Treasury.
Italsoprovides for the forfeiture
in favor ofthe Philippines ofassets
related to cash smuggling.
The bill also makes "escorting''
cash smugglers illegal is part of
the criminalization of the con-
spiracy to smuggle cash. It also
makes declarations ofcash trans-
' port amounts "under oath," effec-
tively maki ng any misdeclaration
perjurious.
The bill ma ndates AMLC rep-
resentative in airports, develops
rapid-reporting mecha
ism be-
a n
* PAq- -AI "
tweenauthorities andAMLC,while
expanCingAMLC's powers of sur-
veillance over airports and ports.
"Bulkcash smugglingis a serio].rs
national securityriskas much as it is
a gisk to the country's institutions.
Bulkcash smuggling suspectedto be
in the billions of pesos are enough
to shift political fortunes and cor-
rupt institutions .in the country,
facilitating crime and other illegal
activities," said Salceda.
In 2019, Salceda saidonlyabout
1,015 tourists declared to have
brought in more than $10,000 out
of the 12 million foreign arriv-
als the same year. 'Among these
declared bulk foreign currency
imports. about P28.6 billion were
brought in by four groups-Rodri-
guez group, Philippine Offshore
Gaming Operators (POGO), Singa-
porean and Chinese groups-and
yet, authorities were unable to ob-
tain sufficient information about
the source, purpose, or destination
of these funds," he added.
Salcedii said the more the
country's financial authori-
ties-including the Department
of Finance, the Bangko Sentral
ng Pilipinas and the AMLC-are
u_nable to respond to bulk cash
smuggling decisively, the greater
becomes the risk of the country
being delisted from the Finan-
cial Action Task Force (FATF)
for being a high-risk base for
terrorism financing and money
laundering.
The lawmaker said this delist-
ing would have serious implica-
tions on the ability of Philippine
financial institutions to expand
and do business transnationalln
as this would also carry broader
dangers to the country's credit
standing internationally, making
the country a riskier borrower of
fund s.