Gretchen Ho/Instagram
MANILA — The Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said a family member of host and former volleyball player Gretchen Ho failed to have US dollars exchanged at Gardermoen Airport in Oslo due to an outdated dirty money "grey list."
In a social media post on Monday, Ho said her mother "got denied" at a foreign exchange counter in Oslo.
She said the personnel at the counter told her family member, "You came from the Philippines? We cannot exchange your dollars because of the corruption and money laundering in the Philippines."
In a statement, the DFA said the foreign exchange stall at Oslo airport was following an "outdated list" that still included the Philippines in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
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The FATF list identifies countries that have deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regimes, the DFA said.
It noted that the Philippines was removed from the FATF grey list in February 2025 and the European Union grey list in August 2025.
The agency added that the Norwegian Foreign Ministry officials had committed to follow up with the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway "to update and delist the Philippines on the forex companies' list of countries with high risk for money laundering or terrorist financing."
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The Philippines this year faced another corruption scandal that involved billions of pesos worth of funds meant to mitigate widespread flooding.
The corruption issue has wiped out trillions in market value of publicly listed companies in just three weeks, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Tuesday.
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