For newly appointed Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) executive director Ronel Buenaventura, the next test of the Philippines’ financial crime defenses will not simply be whether reforms remain written into regulations.
The bigger challenge is showing that these safeguards deliver results.
As the country prepares for another international assessment in 2027, Buenaventura said his first year at the helm of the AMLC would focus on translating previous reforms into measurable improvements, directing resources toward the country’s most serious financial crime risks and deepening cooperation with local and foreign authorities.
‘A successful year for the AMLC would be marked by the substantial completion of all critical preparatory initiatives for the 2027 Mutual Evaluation,’ Buenaventura told The STAR.
‘This means moving beyond planning and translating our identified priorities into concrete and measurable interventions that meaningfully strengthen the Philippines’ anti-money laundering regime,’ he said.
The upcoming review will be conducted under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s fifth round of mutual evaluations, which will examine both the technical soundness of the country’s anti-money laundering framework and its effectiveness in practice.
Technical compliance broadly measures whether the necessary laws, regulations and institutional arrangements are in place. Effectiveness, meanwhile, looks at whether authorities are actually identifying financial crimes, pursuing offenders and recovering illicit assets.
‘Success will be reflected in our ability to demonstrate that reforms are not only in place but are operating effectively in practice,’ Buenaventura said.
The country was previously placed under increased monitoring in June 2021 after authorities were tasked with addressing deficiencies in the prevention and prosecution of money laundering and terrorism financing.
The Philippines subsequently carried out regulatory, operational and institutional reforms that strengthened the supervision of covered persons and improved the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct financial investigations.
Authorities also increased money laundering and terrorism financing prosecutions and convictions, improved mechanisms for freezing and confiscating assets and strengthened coordination among government agencies.
Progress was likewise made in addressing risks involving designated non-financial businesses and professions, cross-border transactions and beneficial ownership transparency.
‘The Philippines’ AML/CFT/CPF framework today is significantly stronger and more mature than it was when the country was included in the grey list in June 2021,’ Buenaventura said.
These improvements eventually allowed the FATF to determine that the country had substantially completed the action plan required for its removal from increased monitoring in February 2025.
‘However, as FATF standards continue to evolve, we must keep pace,’ Buenaventura said.
‘As the country prepares for the next round of mutual evaluation scheduled next year, further amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act are needed, particularly to strengthen our asset recovery framework, among others.’
The AMLC will also intensify its work on the priority risks identified in the third National Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Risk Assessment (NRA).
The national risk assessment, prepared with the participation of government agencies, supervisory authorities, law enforcement bodies and private sector partners, is intended to provide a data-driven picture of the country’s most significant money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing threats and vulnerabilities.
It will serve as the basis for deciding where limited government and private sector resources should be concentrated.
‘With the third NRA as our guide, the AMLC will ensure that resources are directed where they will have the greatest impact, particularly in high-risk sectors and emerging threat areas,’ Buenaventura said.
The risk-based approach is intended to prevent agencies and financial institutions from applying the same level of scrutiny to all activities regardless of their exposure.
Instead, authorities and covered persons are expected to devote greater attention, staffing and monitoring capacity to areas where illicit funds are most likely to be generated, transferred or concealed.
For AMLC, implementing the national risk assessment will require coordination beyond the financial intelligence unit itself. Banks, regulators, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and other covered sectors will need to align their internal controls and enforcement priorities with the risks identified in the assessment.
Buenaventura also placed stronger domestic and international cooperation at the center of his agenda, noting that financial crimes are becoming more complex and increasingly extend across institutional and national borders.
The AMLC plans to reinforce its partnerships with Philippine government agencies, foreign counterparts and international organizations while exploring additional avenues for collaboration.
Closer cooperation can help authorities obtain financial intelligence, trace cross-border flows and coordinate investigative or enforcement actions when evidence, assets or persons of interest are located outside the Philippines.
Buenaventura took over the AMLC Secretariat with experience spanning financial regulation, litigation, policy development and private sector compliance.
His appointment took effect on April 14, succeeding Matthew David, who requested a transfer to another position within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Before becoming executive director, Buenaventura served as acting deputy director of the AMLC Secretariat’s Commitments and Policy Group, where he played a central role in the work that led to the Philippines’ exit from the FATF grey list.
He also served as acting legal officer IV at the BSP’s Office of the General Counsel and Legal Services. His career also includes a stint as associate solicitor III at the Office of the Solicitor General.
His combination of regulatory, legal and private sector experience places him at the center of an effort to move the Philippines from compliance on paper toward sustained enforcement.
For Buenaventura, securing improved ratings in 2027 would signal that the anti-money laundering system can adjust to changing risks without losing the progress achieved during the country’s four years under increased monitoring.
‘Ultimately, our objective is to place the country in a strong compliance posture to achieve improved ratings in both the technical compliance and effectiveness components of the assessment,’ he said.
Such a result, Buenaventura added, would affirm that the Philippines has ‘a strong, adaptable, and resilient AML/CTF/CPF regime that meets international standards and safeguards the integrity of our financial system.’