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BSP exec holds briefing on new freeze law on questionable bank accounts in the Visayas

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Zeno Ronald R. Abenoja discusses the central bank’s recent measures addressing questionable activities related to certain government projects during the Visayas leg of the Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) in Cebu on Sept. 19, 2025. He highlighted the implementation of the newly enacted Anti-Financial Accounts Screening Act (AFASA), under which the BSP has launched inquiries into the bank accounts of specific individuals suspected of involvement in money-milling activities. The law allows banks to temporarily freeze the accounts of those under investigation, with gathered information supporting broader agency inquiries and prosecution efforts. Abenoja also noted that the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) authority filed a petition with the Court of Appeals, which subsequently issued a freeze order. These ongoing actions aim to complement the work of other government agencies, providing a clearer understanding of the financial transactions connected to these projects.

KAISER JAN FUENTES

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Transcript
00:00are actions that PSP has been undertaking recently regarding some of these discussions on
00:09questionable activities regarding these projects. First, there is a new law that was recently
00:18enacted. Let me just say the proper name. It's called AFASA. It's the Anti-Financial Accounts
00:27Coming Act. Under that law, the PSP has issued an inquiry into bank accounts of certain individuals
00:43and an investigation is now focusing on the money-milling activities that could be related
00:51into some of these activities. It could be recalled that under this law,
00:55the banks can temporarily freeze the account of individuals that are named in this
01:04inquiry account. And any information, material information that the DSP may gather
01:10from this initiative, we will use it to help other agencies in their investigation
01:19and including the prosecution activities of other agencies. A second one is also a recent action by
01:29the AMLA authority. They filed a petition under the CA, the Court of Appeals, and the Court of Appeals
01:39and issued a freeze order based on this petition. So these things are now ongoing and we could help or complement
01:49what the other agencies are doing to help us understand better regarding these particular projects.
01:58that particular concern, right? I mean, first, the president created this independent commission
02:10and then again, even at the BBWH with the new secretary there, he has
02:18strongly pursued, you know, fighting of cases against airing the BBWH officials and the BBWH officials.
02:29Again, this response also would help to say that we are doing something about it. And again, over and above the
02:39over and above the, the, the transparency mechanism of BBM. In fact, um, if it, the procurement was stopped
02:46altogether in BBWH, but it's in resume now, but again, with a lot of additional controls like streaming,
02:52the procurement processes. So again, this would help. And then hopefully, um, the, the findings of the
03:01indoment commission will be there to establish and institutionalize, um, the control, um, processes
03:10and control systems that would again, um, would minimize or hopefully eradicate, um, corruption,
03:18in not only the BBWH, but also in other government agencies. Thank you, Sipoy. Um, I just know,
03:26and I mentioned a little bit, the secretary is that we have a visa, a program for the Digital Nomads. So Sebu is
03:36trying to be a destination for digital nomads. These are the, uh, national budget call, the national expenditure
03:44program, uh, the, uh, general appropriations, um, um, the in-year report or the DBCC, uh, uh,
03:56annual fiscal report and the DBCC midyear report. So these are being delivered annually
04:05with a set of standards in compliance with the OBS. So there are certain NGs or contents
04:15in these reports that, aside from being published online, there are contents in these reports
04:24that help us improve on the scores in terms of transparency. And our recent survey indicates
04:35that we already got 75 out of 100 based on a standard set of questions. And that made
04:43us number one fiscal transparent government in Asia. Thank you.
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