November 27 2019
The Philippine government—through the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) — has seized almost P1.7 billion in funds suspected of having come from illegal activities, the head of the country’s top Financial Intelligence unit said on Tuesday.
In a statement, AMLC executive director Mel Georgie Racela said these frozen assets included approximately $1 million in funds seized from parties suspected of being involved in terrorism — an achievement that was made possible by “collaboration with domestic law enforcement agencies”. “The estimated value of assets subject to civil forfeiture from 2018 to September 2019 alone has already amounted to over P600 million, bringing the total to nearly PhP1.7 billion, beginning 2017,” he said in his remarks during the 5th Counterterrorism Financing Summit held recently in Manila.
