Manila Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile vowed not to discuss the proposed amendment of the Anti Money Laundering Act (AMLA) bill.

That is until the Senate finds out who was responsible for violating the country’s bank secrecy law to get data on the bank account of Supreme Court justice Renato Corona who was impeached by the House of Representatives and is facing impeachment trial at the Senate, a local paper said.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Central Bank of the Philippines were used to illegally obtain the bank records of Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona without informing him about it, Senator Enrile told Today.

“Under the AMLA Law, the council can look into the records of depositors only if there is a predicate crime but in this case (of Corona) there is none,” Enrile said, promoting him to order a probe on the alleged irregularity.

Interpreting Enrile’s statement further, Today said the Senate president wanted to find out “if the Aquino administration violated the country’s bank secrecy law” for the sake of impeaching Corona.

Earlier, Philippine Savings Bank president Pascual Garcia testified at the Senate impeachment trial, saying in September 2010, the Central Bank audited Corona’s bank account even if his name was not included in the original list of depositors to be be audited.

Earlier, the House of Representatives approved AMLA’s amendments on third and final reading. The proposed amendment granted additional powers to the AMLC to examine the bank records of suspected criminals and terrorists and to seize assets even without court orders.

The Senate was expected to give its own version of the proposed amendment of AMLA.
Apart from the presidential palace, the United States has also pushed for the AMLA amendment, sources said.

Reacting to this, Enrile cited three reasons why the Senate will not yet discuss AMLA’s amendment.

“Why should we approve this amendment when it seems to me that it’s being used to look into the records of unsuspecting citizens (like Corona)?” said Enrile.

“And why should we now agree to amend the AMLA only because the Americans wanted it in their fight against terrorism when it would also defile and taint our system the way we are handling it?” Enrile added.

Noting the importance of protecting the Philippine banking system, Enrile said, “If we do that (amend AMLA), our depositors would be helpless. Anybody can be exposed without a fight. We are trying to protect the integrity of the banking system.”

The government has already violated the bank secrecy laws and the absolute confidentiality mandated by the Foreign Currency Deposits Act, as exposed by the evidences gathered by the congressmen who voted to impeach the chief justice, explained Senator Joker Arroyo.

“Government resources were being used to gather dossiers to persecute those who had offended Malacanang (the presidential palace,” Arroyo said.

This prompted the Senate to investigate the Central Bank of the Philippines and the AMLC on why and how congressmen got details of Corona’s bank account.

Earlier, President Aquino said the acquittal of Corona could damage his fight against graft and corruption.