Registration of property brokers, POGOs extended

MANILA, Philippines — Real estate brokers and developers as well as Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) have been given more time to register with the electronic reporting system of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

In an advisory, the AMLC said real estate developers and brokers as well as offshore gaming operators and their service providers can still register with the agency even beyond the initial March 16 deadline.

Mel Georgie Racela, executive director of the AMLC Secretariat, told The STAR the agency has so far approved 337 registration applications as of March 12, 97 percent of which are real estate developers and brokers.

Racela said the AMLC is processing 771 more applications, while 341 applications are pending due to registration requirement deficiencies.

The AMLC official said that based on a report from the Professional Regulatory Board for Real Estate Service of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), there are around 30,000 real estate brokers currently registered and licensed in the country.

Racela, however, said figures for the total number of real estate developers, offshore gaming operators and their service providers are still pending.

The financial intelligence unit is in the process of revising the Anti-Money Laundering – Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) guidelines for designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBP).

According to the AMLC, the proposed changes, including the setting of a new registration deadline, take into account various proposals from the PRC and industry associations.

“The new deadline will be indicated in the revised AML-CTF guidelines for DNFBP,” Racela said.

Under Republic Act 11521 or the amended Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001, POGOs as well as real estate developers and brokers were classified as covered persons and are required to report covered and suspicious transactions to the AMLC.

To be able to file reports, Section 4 Rule 22 of the 2018 IRR requires all covered persons to register with the AMLC’s electronic reporting system within 30 working days from the effectivity of guidelines.

President Duterte signed the law amending the 20-year old AMLA on Jan. 29, barely beating the Feb. 1 deadline set by Paris-based dirty money watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Under the strengthened AMLA, all entities regulated by the state-run Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) particularly POGOs need to report each cash transaction worth P5 million, while real estate developers and brokers are required to notify the financial intelligence unit for each transaction worth P7.5 million and above.

The Philippines is in danger of being included in the gray list and may face sanctions from FATF after it was placed under a 12-month observation period by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) in October 2019. The country was given more time due to the pandemic.

AMLC Secretariat Mel Georgie Racela earlier said the country has until April to effectively implement the amended AMLA and RA 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 to avoid being included in the list of countries with significant strategic deficiencies in countering money laundering and terrorist financing.

The country was blacklisted by the FATF in 2000 for failing to address “dirty” money issues, paving the way for the enactment of AMLA in 2001. It narrowly avoided being placed on blacklist in 2012 as it criminalized terrorist financing and pursued quicker freezing of suspect accounts after being subsequently removed from the blacklist in February 2005.