https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/2/11/amlc-challenging-to-track-stolen-money-not-stored-in-banks-1925

MANILA — Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona Jr, who is also Chairman of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, admitted it is challenging to track all money stolen from the government because some of the so-called dirty money is not kept in banks.

Speaking at the Economic Briefing organized by the Management Association of the Philippines, Remolona said the AMLC can monitor bank accounts and, in fac,t has already frozen assets worth almost P25 billion- consisting of bank accounts, e-wallet accounts, insurance policies, and other assets linked to the flood control scandal.

But he said, those not deposited in financial institutions may be harder to track.

“[The] problem we have is we can only do something if the money is in the bank," Remolona said.

He added that they will need the help of other agencies to look for potentially stolen money outside the formal banking sector— including possible huge amounts of cash inside homes.

Remolona added they are strengthening AMLC to better track or identify money laundering schemes. There are current tools, he said, but they need more.

“We had some tools. We've succeeded in using them. I would admit we need more tools. We're getting help from international organizations,” he said.

The BSP chief also said that he expects an economic recovery this year following a weaker-than-expected growth in 2025 due to the flood control issue. But he also said the 2025 figure may be a more realistic growth rate of the country since the higher growth rates in 2023 and 2024 were not yet impacted by the flood control controversy. He said expenditures were high in 2023 and 2024, but now that money likely did not go to the intended projects.

“When we realized that not all that money actually went to investment or consumption, a lot of it went to cash that was stored in people's basements. We have to adjust. It looks like we exaggerated our growth rate in the past two years,” he said.

Remolona is more optimistic of growth for 2026 due to the reforms being done in the country. He said the country still has a lot of growth potential and a recovery is expected in the second half of the year.