The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is working with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in the fight against dirty funds as the Philippines remains on the "grey list" of countries that are "under increased" monitoring by the France-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

To prevent the Philippines from being used as a haven for the proceeds of illegal activities, including the financing of terrorism, the BIR and the AMLC are taking steps to promote and encourage cooperation and coordination to effectively prevent, control, detect, investigate and prosecute money laundering activities that support such acts.

Through this partnership that was formalized on Oct. 13, the AMLC may enlist the assistance of the BIR in the detection and investigation of money laundering activities and other violations of the Anti-Money Laundering law in cases where the fund in question is more than P25 million.

For its part, the BIR may request for financial information, including bank records, in relation to any violation of laws that the BIR is tasked to implement.

Such requests from the BIR may include an evaluation of the case under investigation and/or disclosure of all relevant information necessary for the AMLC to properly process the requests.

Further, AMLC and BIR have committed to cooperate in the areas of information exchange and capacity building measures to enhance their capability in addressing unlawful activities.

The FATF, the global money laundering and terrorist financing inter-governmental watchdog, last week released its latest list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, where the Philippines has remained since being re-listed in June 2021.

Being in this so-called grey list means that the country has committed to swiftly resolve the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring.

Also, remaining on the list means that the country's efforts to fight money laundering are not enough to be removed from the list.

Aside from the Philippines, the current list includes Albania, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Congo, Gibraltar, Haiti, Jamaica, Jordan, Mali and Morocco. INQ By Ronnel W. Domingo

@RonWDomingoINQ