Philippine Blacklisted as tax haven

Posted on April 5, 2009 admin

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oecd Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has listed the Philippines in the list of “uncooperative tax havens”, other countries named are Uruguay, Costa Rica and the Malaysian territory of Labuan as the worst offenders, saying they had refused to adopt new rules on financial openness.

Somehow this came as no surprise to most Filipinos, since many people accused of corruption or the same can get away with anything. Since the banks are uncooperative and often leaves the investigation to a dead end.

The list was made public as G20 leaders from rich and developing nations declared at their summit Thursday that the age of banking secrecy was over, saying they would no longer tolerate shady havens draining away badly needed tax revenue.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said one of the issues that Congress should address is the proposal of Finance Secretary Margarito Teves for a review of the laws on banking secrecy and tax information secrecy in view of the “perceived limitation of the country’s compliance with international agreements.”

“Maybe it’s about time to refocus on this issue so that we can remove this stain on our country,” Remonde said.

Remonde said there are systems in place against money laundering and other illegal activities but they need fine-tuning and “President Arroyo is fully committed to that.”

“We are asking for the understanding, support and cooperation of the legislators,” Remonde said.

For Speaker Prospero Nograles, it’s the rich countries that need to mind their way of doing business.

“They’ve always made the Philippines the punching bag as if we are not doing any correct things here. But it’s them who point to us who caused the massive global crisis and not the Philippines,” Nograles said.

source: Blacklisting a wake-up call’