FATF sanctions won't
hurt most OFWs



OVERSEAS Filipino workers are once again being used as convenient whipping posts by some pro-administration legislators to scare reluctant colleagues into passing stronger amendments to the Anti-Money-Laundering Law (AMLA). The boogey man of impending international financial sanctions by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is being bandied about, with many saying the estimated six billion dollarsin annual OFW remittances to the Philippines would be threatened if sanctions were imposed.

Originally enacted at end-September 2001, the AMLA was adopted under American pressure following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington. Part of a US government effort to be able to track terrorists' funds around the world, the AMLA has repeatedly clashed against Philippine banking secrecy laws that oblige any investigating body to get a court order to be able to scrutinize anyone's bank account. The FATF is also pressuring the Philippines into lowering the threshold at which bank transactions can be automatically reviewed by investigators, from four million pesos and to 500,000 pesos.

The FATF has also insisted that any bank account belonging to people linked to list of 14 "predicate crimes" be automatically subject to regulatory scrutiny. Twelve 12 senators oppose this. They want only three crimes to trigger automatic access to bank account information, namely, kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking, and hijacking.

Senate President Franklin Drilon has strongly supported all the FATF demands, and was guilty of scare-mongering when he announced this week that the Philippine National Bank's application to process remittances through ATMs in Japan had been rejected by the Japanese government because of impending FATF sanctions against the Philippines. As the advocacy group for migrant workers Migrante pointed out in a press release on Wednesday, several Japanese-based OFW groups debunked Drilon's assertion, pointing out that PNB's application had been postponed because of technical reasons and not because of looming sanctions.

"OFWs in Japan can still remit money through the local postal system. Even if the Japanese government doesn't approve the PNB application, OFWs are virtually unaffected because they can still send money through the post offices. The only ones hit are PNB and Metrobank because their expansion plans in Japan would have been denied," the OFW groups told Migrante.

Even if international banking sanctions were imposed on the Philippines, Migrante points out that only 42 percent of OFW remittances go through banks, and that other non-banking channels could be used, such as the door-to-door system, to move OFW money around the globe. According to a study done by the Asian-Pacific Mission for Migrants, OFWs send home an average of 350 dollars a month per worker.

Many have pointed out that some of the 12 senators objecting to FATF demands are perhaps guilty of hiding ill-gotten wealth and thus oppose making it easier for authorities to snoop around in their bank accounts. Other senators I'm sure are rightly objecting to FATF demands on nationalistic grounds. Why after all should the Philippines, a sovereign nation, bow down to American demands?

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, being the Tony Blair of Asia because of her unabashed support of Bush's war on terror, has brought in FATF officials to talk with Philippine legislators. Hopefully a compromise can be worked that is acceptable to all. It's an unfortunate truth that America is calling the shots post-9/11, and that perhaps the Philippines will just have to swallow its pride this time and go along with FATF demands.

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Is America's next Vietnam in Mindanao?

THE NEWS that US President George Bush is planning to authorize the deployment of American Green Berets with Philippine troops in Sulu to help fight the Abu Sayyaf guerillas, was first leaked to an American newsletter a few weeks ago. Now the leaks have become a veritable torrent of leaks, with most of them attributed directly to Pentagon sources, all of whom of course wish to remain anonymous.

The US has been treading a fine line in the Philippines since last year when it first held huge joint military exercises in Basilan with Philippine armed forces in Balikatan 02-1. Although US troops were often placed in the front lines of battle alongside their Filipino counterparts, they were forbidden from actively fighting and could only fire a weapon in self-defense. Nevertheless, US technological might and intelligence helped capture many Abu Sayyaf fighters.

In the ongoing fight against global terrorism, and more specifically Muslim terrorists, the US has now linked the Abu Sayyaf to the Indonesian group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been held responsible for the Bali bombings last year that killed so many Australian tourists.

Under the new plan, Green Berets, which are the Special Forces of the US military, would be deployed with Philippine troops and allowed to fight. This would mark a huge escalation of US involvement in the ongoing fighting in Mindanao between Muslim separatists and Philippine forces. As the US knows all too well from its 50 years of trying to govern the Philippines when it was a US colony, the Muslims of Mindanao were never conquered by the Spanish or the Americans. US military planners would do well to remember this.

It's good news that President Macapagal-Arroyo has approved a draft peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but the ongoing fighting in Mindanao leaves one wondering just how sincere the government's intentions really are.