{"id":64805,"date":"2015-11-16T02:55:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T08:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=64805"},"modified":"2015-11-16T02:55:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T08:55:12","slug":"2-congressmen-reject-proposal-to-lift-bank-secrecy-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/11\/16\/2-congressmen-reject-proposal-to-lift-bank-secrecy-law\/","title":{"rendered":"2 congressmen reject proposal to lift Bank Secrecy Law"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Robert Vi\u00f1as \/ PCOO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and House Independent Minority Bloc leader Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez expressed yesterday their opposition to the Department of Finance (DOF) and Bureau of Internal Revenue\u2019s (BIR) proposal on lifting the Bank Secrecy Law for tax inquiry purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told finance officials (in a recent meeting) that it (bank secrecy lifting) will scare aware businessmen, local and foreign investors,\u201d Belmonte was quoted as saying in a report by Philippine Star.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy challenge to the BIR is to expand the miniscule tax base of the country, and start with the country\u2019s richest families and those, although ostensibly not rich, who wallow in luxury,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Palace\u2019s proposal on the Bank Secrecy Law will not be supported by the Congress, nor will it be approved by President Aquino, Belmonte told The Standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cPassing this right now is ill-timed because we have a color-blind government or selective in granting justice and not sincere in prosecuting violators of the country\u2019s laws. This could be used as a tool for persecution or harassment against members of the political opposition. This government has a track record of demolishing the image of its enemies,\u201d Romualdez told the Standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Speaker was right to reject the proposed measure and I am with him that the government should run after bigtime smugglers, money launderers and tax evaders,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Section 2 of Republic Act No. 1405 (Bank Secrecy Law) says that \u201call deposits of whatever nature with banks or banking institutions in the Philippines\u201d are \u201cconsidered as of an absolutely confidential nature and may not be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government official, bureau or office, except upon written permission of the depositor, or in cases of impeachment, or upon order of a competent court in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty of public officials, or in cases where the money deposited or invested is the subject matter of the litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny violation of this law will subject offender upon conviction, to an imprisonment of not more than five years or a fine of not more than twenty thousand pesos or both, in the discretion of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and House Independent Minority Bloc leader Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez expressed yesterday their opposition to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":11350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95,1],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-64805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","category-uncategorized","tag-rewrite","mauthors-katherine-padilla","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}