BY EVANGELINE DE VERA

GOVERNMENT lawyers yesterday asked the Supreme Court to reverse its decision requiring notice and hearing prior to the issuance of an order allowing bank inquiries, saying such a prerequisite might not sit well with other countries.

The tribunal last February 14 dismissed the petition of the Anti-Money Laundering Council seeking the immediate implementation of orders issued by the regional trials courts in Manila and Makati allowing the examination of bank accounts of former government officials and private individuals allegedly involved in the graft-ridden Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminal 3 project.

Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera, in a 38-page motion for reconsideration, said the high court's decision could undermine the AMLC mandate to go after perpetrators of money laundering operations in the country.

She further said if the decision would be followed, the country would face serious repercussions in its financial transactions with other countries because the decision runs counter to standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which includes the ability to identify and trace, with expediency, properties subject of the money laundering inquiry.

She said FATF, which was established by the Group of Seven nations (G7) and has currently more than 30 member-jurisdictions, could individually impose drastic counter-measures on the Philippines if its fails to comply with its standards.

"Worse, such global perception may revert the Philippines to the dreaded FATF list of Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCT), a situation that needlessly causes prejudice to the country's financial transactions, including those involving the much valued foreign remittances of overseas Filipino workers," she said.

She said that in 2000, the Philippines' inclusion in the FATF list of non-cooperative countries and territories led the United States Department of the Treasury/Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to issue Advisory 24 which imposed enhanced scrutiny on Philippine-related transactions. This, she said, greatly affected relationships of Philippine banks with its counterparts in the US.

Counter-measures that could be imposed on the country could include limitation on migration, according to the OSG.

Devanadera also said the Court's decision requiring notice and hearing prior to the issuance of bank inquiry order is tantamount to alerting the holder of the account suspected of being used in money laundering activities.

"With the rapid technological advances in banking, money can be electronically transferred in a matter of seconds not only from one bank to another within a country but also between jurisdictions. Consequently and inevitably, there is nothing more to freeze and forfeit because the money is gone - and possibly gone forever - and the remedies of freeze and forfeiture will become useless and meaningless," Devanadera said.

She also said the requirement of "notice and hearing" in an application for an order of inquiry will practically deny the AMLC the right to exercise its authority to inquire into or examine bank deposits or investments suspected to be related to an unlawful activity.

In the decision, the tribunal said R.A. 9160 or the Anti Money Laundering Act does not allow courts to issue ex parte bank inquiry order, or without hearing from or notifying the other parties.

The Manila RTC issued orders on July 25 and Aug. 15, 2006 deferring the implementation of the SC's Jan. 12, 2006 order granting AMLC's application to inquire into 13 accounts and two related web accounts alleged as having been used to facilitate corruption in the NAIA 3 project.

Among the accounts were those of former Transportation secretary Pantaleon Alvarez and Cheng Yong, president of NAIA 3 contractor Philippine International Air Terminal Corp. (Piatco).

The AMLC filed before the Makati RTC an ex-parte application to inquire into the accounts of four accused based on the findings of its compliance and investigation staff that amounts were transferred from a Hong Kong bank account owned by Jetstream Pacific Lt. to bank accounts in the Philippines maintained by Yong.

Cheng Yong's wife Lilia sought to enjoin the Manila and Makati RTCs from allowing the AMLC to implement the bank inquiry orders.