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Inclusion of real estate brokers in AMLA coverage: Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel during the hybrid plenary session, Wednesday, December 16, 2020, asks Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies, if the removal of the word “brokers” in Senate Bill No. (SBN) 1945 which seeks to further amend the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001, would change the original intention of the measure to cover all real estate transactions. “If we remove brokers and only cover real estate developers we change the entire concept and that we only want to cover the first sale of a real estate property from the developer to the first registered owner but the sale of first registered owner to the second buyer, is no longer the sale of a real estate developer… that is the impression I made and I want be clarified,” Pimentel said. Poe agreed with him noting that not all sales are sales that are coming from developers and that is why her committee accepted the recommendation to include brokers in the measure. (Alex Nueva Espana/Senate PRIB)