MANILA - Casino operators and some senators lobbied to exclude casinos from the list of institutions covered by the Anti-Money Laundering Act, Sen. Sergio Osmena III revealed Tuesday.

Osmena, author of the Anti-Money Laundering Law, said his push to include casinos in the list of institutions covered by the money laundering law was defeated due to strong lobbying by casino operators and some senators. If covered by the law, casinos will be required to submit transaction reports to the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

"Malakas ang lobby nila. Nag o-object nga ako bakit ganun pero yung mga kasamahan ko sa Senado, sabi nila tanggalin muna natin yan," he said in a DZMM interview.

He also said the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation lobbied against the inclusion of casinos under the covered institutions of AMLA since it would deter investors.

Asked if some senators lobbied for the exclusion of the casinos, Osmena said: "Meron. Meron akong mga kasama inside the Senate mismo. Kaya nga natalo kami sa voting e. It was an internal thing...Ako, nag object ako talaga. I said that is a very big loophole."

He, however, refused to identify the senators. "Huwag na. Hindi ko ma-prove yan e. Backroom talks ito e. Anyway, they are not up for re-election anymore."

READ: PH casinos get a pass in anti-money laundering law

In a separate ANC interview, Osmena denied that money was involved on why senators lobbied for the casinos' exclusion.

"The Senate is always being subjected to lobbying. There's nothing wrong with that. Everybody's allowed to give information, their opinion on whatever pending bills we have. That's what happened. We were running out of time; it was May, June, so we decided to (remove casinos) and make do with what we have already," he said.

"I'm not saying just because there was lobbying, money was involved. That's totally different, that's bribery already.

Osmena said the AMLA was amended four times to expand the list of predicate crimes and institutions covered by the law. This was after the Financial Action Task Force threatened to put the Philippines in its "black list" of countries being used as money laundering havens.

The amendments passed by the Senate and House of Representatives apply to businesses other than banks and aim to stop the funneling of proceeds from criminal activity, as well as to block terror funding.

Anti-Money Laundering Council executive chairman Vicente Aquino earlier told the Senate that casinos are known conduits of money laundering since anyone could claim they earned money through gambling.

A Philippine Daily Inquirer report, meanwhile, reported that the country's financial regulators are investigating a $100 million (P5 billion) laundering activity that used Philippine banks and casinos. The report said the funds were stolen by hackers from a bank overseas and then coursed to a RCBC-Makati City branch through a transaction handled by one of its branch managers with a foreign exchange broker.

The funds were then converted to pesos, consolidated into a single corporate account of a Chinese-Filipino businessman and then used to either "buy chips" or "pay for casino losses" incurred at Solaire Resort and Casino, City of Dreams Manila and Midas Hotel and Casino before being moved back to bank accounts overseas, Inquirer sources said.

Osmena said the AMLA amendments were not meant to discourage gaming but to put checks on possible money laundering activities. "If you put it as a predicate crime, you can arrest people already on the basis of that report," he said.

Referring to the Inquirer report, he said authorities will have a hard time arresting anyone in the money laundering scheme "because it is not covered by law."

"That is what I was afraid of and that has happened."

He said he expects the incident to be reported to the Financial Action Task Force after reviewing the country's regulations several years ago.

"I told the FATF, you guys have to push us to include casinos, real estate, art auctions as part of the anti-money laundering law. But they took us off the gray list. We're now in the white list. So I told myself we'll probably see them again when a scandal breaks, and it's happening now," he said.

He also pointed out that real estate transactions and art auctions should also be covered by the AMLA.

"One or 5 million pesos and up, so it won't be much of a burden for real estate brokers and developers. It's like going to a casino. You buy a property, sell it, the money has been laundered. When you are asked where the money come from? You say 'Kakabebenta ko lang ng property ng nanay ko,'" he told ANC.

"All art can be used for money laundering. For example, I have P10 million from drug dealing, how do I explain it to the BIR? So I'll have a friend of mine buy the art, give it to me, then later on, after several weeks, I'll sell the art then I have an explanation. 'Ah, I found a painting in my closet and I sold it for P10 million.'"

"Tax evasion should have been a predicate crime a long time ago. In several countries, it is. But here,Congress didn't want to make tax evasion a predicate crime."

He also said the next Congress should strongly reconsider the bank secrecy law.

"We have the strictest bank secrecy law in the whole world. Congress doesn't want to loosen it up. Why? You and I have our own guesses. It's very easy for criminals to hide their money in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, we're one of the most active money laundering centers in the world," he said. With Agence France-Presse

READ: Money laundering law should cover casinos: Guingona