Press Release
February 6, 2007

LACSON TO REVIVE SLEEPING BILL
ON BANK SECRECY WAIVER

Dismayed over the continued refusal of high government officials and relatives accused of corruption to heed calls for accountability, Sen. Panfilo Lacson will push for the revival of a sleeping bill aiming to exempt them from the bank secrecy law.

Lacson said he will re-file his bill, which will require elected and appointed officials to sign a waiver from the bank secrecy law, which they have used to hamper and stall investigations of officials and employees suspected of enriching themselves while in office.

Once you enter government service, whether appointed or elected, you should be deemed to have waived your right to the bank secrecy act. That way, we promote transparency in government, he said.

Lacson lamented that the proposed measure, which he filed as Senate Bill 1599 on Aug. 13, 2001, was never acted upon in the Senate. He re-filed it as Senate Bill 832 on June 30, 2004, but it remained a sleeping bill.

RA 1405, the Secrecy of Bank Deposits Law passed way back in 1955, allows investigation of accounts only upon written permission of the depositor; in cases of impeachment; upon order of a competent court in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty; and in cases where the money deposited or invested is the subject matter of litigation.

Lacsons bill, which aims to amend Section 2 of the law, provides that deposits may not be examined except when the depositor is an elective or appointive official of the Republic of the Philippines.

Its coverage includes, but is not limited to, the President, Vice President, members of Congress, members of the judiciary, the Ombudsman and his deputies, the chairmen and members of the Constitutional Commission, members of the Cabinet including undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and bureau directors of the different departments, commissioners, deputy commissioners, examiners, and/or appraisers of the Bureaus of Customs and Internal Revenue, and officers and members of the military and the police.

This is a measure I will fight for. Passing such a law was my challenge to my colleagues when I was accused by Malacañang using then spy chief Victor Corpus, Angelo Ador Mawanay, and self-proclaimed agent Mary Rosebud Ong of maintaining multimillion-dollar accounts in the US, Lacson said.

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