CPBRD flags gaps in transparency framework
THE Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) is pushing a law that would unify rules on beneficial ownership, warning that fragmented policies weaken efforts to curb corruption and illicit financial flows.
In a policy brief, the House of Representatives think tank said the Philippines’ existing framework is spread across multiple regulations, including the Anti-Money Laundering Act and rules issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, resulting in inconsistent definitions and limited data verification.
This fragmented setup, it said, reduces the effectiveness of oversight and enforcement. Beneficial ownership rules that will identify the real person who ultimately owns or controls a company, even if hidden behind layers of corporate structures, would fix that, the CPBRD said.
The think tank also cited weak data sharing among government agencies and limited public access to ownership information as key gaps that hinder scrutiny by regulators, media and civil society.
To address these issues, the agency proposed a primary law that would consolidate existing policies, set uniform disclosure standards and establish a central registry under the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The proposed framework also seeks to boost verification mechanisms, improve coordination among agencies and define clearer rules on data access while maintaining privacy safeguards.
The CPBRD said beneficial ownership data is critical in high-risk sectors such as public procurement and extractive industries, where opaque corporate structures could obscure conflicts of interest and enable fraud.
Without a unified law, reforms would remain fragmented and ownership data would not be fully used in enforcing anti-corruption measures, it added. — Pexcel John Bacon
