Marcos backs bill for gov’t officials to waive rights to Bank Secrecy Law: Palace

MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is in favor of a bill seeking to ease bank secrecy regulations for public officials, a Malacañang official said on Monday, noting that the measure would help enforce “accountability and transparency” in the government.

The statement comes a week after Senate President Francis Escudero refiled a measure that mandates all government officials and employees to waive their rights under Republic Act No. 1405, or the Law on the Secrecy of Bank Deposits, and Republic Act No. 6426, or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act.

“Ang Pangulo po ay sang-ayon at dapat lamang natin ipatupad itong accountability and transparency sa gobyerno so hindi tayo magkakaroon ng negatibong sagot mula sa Pangulo,” Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a Palace briefing.

The Philippines’ Bank Secrecy Law was enacted in 1955 — during the term of then-President Ramon Magsaysay — “to give encouragement to the people to deposit their money in banking institutions and to discourage private hoarding so that the same may be properly utilized by banks in authorized loans to assist in the economic development of the country.”

The law deems “unlawful for any official or employee of a banking institution to disclose to any person” unless there is a “written permission of the depositor.”

The law also has exemptions “in cases 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.”

Meantime, the Foreign Currency Deposit Act — which was signed in 1972 by former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. — also guarantees the confidentiality of foreign currency accounts opened in the Philippines.

“The laws may have served their purpose in the past, but their rigidity has enabled corruption to thrive under the guise of confidentiality," Escudero earlier said.

“We are the last country standing in preserving absolute secrecy. That distinction doesn't protect democracy but rather, it undermines it,” he said.