No Confidentiality Rule for Binay?

"The Liberal Party had nothing to do with the AMLC report."

    Senate President Franklin M. Drilon today disputed the assertion of the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay that the publication of the freeze order by the Court of Appeals based on a report by the Anti-Money Laundering Council violated the confidentiality rule of AMLC.

    "The Anti-Money Laundering Act is an exception to the Bank Secrecy Law. That  was the whole point of the debate when we crafted this law. That is the effect of the Bank Secrecy Law, which prohibits revelations of one’s deposits," Drilon explained.

     Drilon said the confidentiality clause in AMLA prohibits the employees and officials of the covered institutions, such as employees of banks or employees of insurance agencies, from revealing to the public what they report to the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

    "The prohibition is on the revelation of the filing of the petition in the Court of Appeals for a freeze order. That is prohibited because its disclosure or publication  would allow the subject or the person against whom the petition is filed to just close the account," Drilon said.

   Once the order is issued for the freeze, there is no prohibition, Drilon emphasized: "The confidentiality rule does not apply because then you already infringe on the freedom of the press. There is no more public interest to be served by prohibiting the publication."

   "The publication is only prohibited when the petition is being filed because then you can close the accounts, but once there is an order, the freedom of the press provision will prevail. Media has access to the freeze order because there is no public interest involved. There is no liability," according to Drilon.

    The Senate President said media cannot be held in contempt for making the freeze order public. He said media can divulge the AMLC report as "it is part of the order of the Court which ordered the freezing. Those are public records. The freedom of the press is primordial in that case."

      Drilon said the freeze order means that the court found strong evidence. Otherwise, it would not be granted.

      At the same time, Drilon clarified that the Liberal Party had nothing to do with the AMLC report. 

    "We have nothing to do with that. The members of the AMLC are professionals. The Bangko Sentral governor is a professional, the SEC officials are professionals. They are not partisan," Drilon said.

    "Of course, as we near the elections, this is par for the course," he added.   

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