Senator Win Gatchalian is calling for stronger support for the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) by equipping the agency with more resources to detect financial crimes early, particularly in light of corruption controversies linked to flood-control projects.
“We want to capacitate you and give you the tools that would enable you to detect early on money-laundering schemes,” Gatchalian told AMLC Executive Director Matthew David during a Senate hearing on the agency’s proposed 2026 budget.
“Gusto naming kayo tulungan para matigil na ang mga corrupt practices,” said Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance. He pointed out that had the AMLC acted earlier, it could have flagged money laundering tied to DPWH flood-control projects through casino transactions.
The senator also cited the case of Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, also known as Alice Guo, who managed to put up a ₱7-billion POGO facility in Bamban, Tarlac due to the agency’s failure to catch suspicious transactions in time.
Given the AMLC’s annual workload of monitoring around 150,000 transactions, Gatchalian expressed support for restoring the agency’s ₱162-million budget cut under the national expenditure program (NEP).
