Manila, July 3 -- Senate President Francis Escudero is reviving a long-standing proposal to compel public officials to waive their bank secrecy rights, warning that the country's decades-old confidentiality laws have become tools for hiding illicit wealth and evading accountability.

Escudero said Thursday the "continued existence of absolute bank secrecy in the Philippines-the last of its kind in the world-no longer protects democracy but enables corruption to thrive unchecked."

"These laws may have served their purpose in the past, but their rigidity has enabled corruption to thrive under the guise of confidentiality," Escudero said, referring to Republic Act 1405 (Bank Secrecy Law) and RA 6426 (Foreign Currency Deposit Act).

"We are ...