The Philippines’ removal from FATF’s Grey List is a pyrrhic victory
The question now is: Will the FATF take responsibility for the harm its standards have enabled, or will it continue to turn a blind eye?
February 22, 2025
NUPL
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers is a nationwide voluntary association of human rights lawyers in the Philippines, committed to the defense, protection, and promotion of human rights, especially of the poor and the oppressed.

Press Statement
February 22, 2025

The FATF’s decision to remove the Philippines from its Grey List is not a victory for the Filipino people, but a concession to an unjust global financial order. This so-called achievement has been built on a foundation of political repression.

The FATF congratulates the Philippines without acknowledging the rampant misuse of counterterrorism financing laws to silence dissent and criminalize civil society. The surge in fabricated terrorism financing cases, arbitrary asset freezes, and instances of financial exclusion are not “unintended consequences” of compliance; they are deliberate tactics used to satisfy the FATF’s mandates at the cost of human rights. That the FATF sees fit to commend the Philippine government while ignoring these realities only confirms its refusal to meaningfully engage with civil society or to acknowledge the real-world impact of its standards.

By aggressively pursuing FATF compliance, the Philippine government has prioritized the approval of foreign states and financial institutions over the welfare of its own people. It has allowed CFT regulations to be used to harass grassroots movements, all while failing to address large-scale corruption, illicit financial flows, and the billions of pesos laundered through Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs). The state’s eagerness to prosecute trumped-up charges of financing terrorism while ignoring financial crimes committed by politically connected elites exposes the hypocrisy of this so-called victory.

The FATF’s final remark urging the Philippines to ensure that CFT measures do not “discourage or disrupt legitimate NPO activity” rings hollow given the FATF’s own complicity in enabling policies that have led to the curtailment of freedom of association, particularly the right to access financial resources. The very fact that FATF commends the Philippines on meeting its targets without addressing the abuse of these measures is not just disappointing—it is damning evidence that its processes lack genuine accountability and transparency.

We have seen firsthand how “progress” in FATF’s terms has meant the erosion of fundamental freedoms in the Philippines. As long as the FATF refuses to engage with civil society, it will continue to serve as a convenient shield for governments to legitimize repression under the pretense of financial integrity. The real cost of the Philippines’ removal from the Grey List is one that CSOs, development workers, and human rights defenders have paid with their freedom and their ability to serve the communities that need them most.

The question now is: Will the FATF take responsibility for the harm its standards have enabled, or will it continue to turn a blind eye?

Reference:

Atty. Josalee S. Deinla
NUPL Secretary General
+639174316396

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