Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has ordered the Bureau of Customs to work closely with the Anti-Money Laundering Council in investigating attempts by suspected syndicates to bring in large sums of foreign currency into the country.
Dominguez issued the directive after receiving a written report from Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero about several attempts by individuals and groups to sneak in large amounts of US dollars and other foreign currency into the country using travelers arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Guerrero said an estimated $370 million or around P18.74 billion were brought into the country by two groups last year, identified in his report as the “Rodriguez” and the “Chinese” groups.
The BOC chief recommended to Dominguez the creation of an interagency body to keep tabs on the inflow of foreign currency into the country through the country’s ports of entry and to recommend measures to deter the use of these funds for illegal activities.
Through backtracking and the intensified monitoring activities of the BOC’s Intelligence Group, Guerrero said the bureau learned that foreign currencies brought in by the Rodriguez Group through the NAIA amounted to about $200.24 million or around P10.18 billion; while the Chinese group sneaked in $167.97 million, equivalent to about P8.54 billion.
Guerrero said the BOC also informed members of the Congress about the concern “as possible basis of policy changes on the protocol to be observed regarding hand-carried foreign currencies passing through our airports.”
The AMLC and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency were also apprised by the BOC of this unusual influx of foreign currencies, he said.
“Given the global threat of terrorism, organized crimes, money laundering and the possibility that such foreign currencies find their way to such unlawful activities, it is respectfully recommended that an inter-agency body be established through a presidential directive, purposedly organized to monitor the continuous inflow of foreign currencies by individual couriers, profile the personalities involved and the recipient thereof, and recommend measures to ensure that such sums of money will not be used in any illegal trade or activities,” Guerrero said in his report.
