{"id":10828,"date":"2025-02-17T01:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T00:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=10828"},"modified":"2025-02-14T13:32:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T12:32:35","slug":"dismissal-of-terrorism-financing-case-highlights-crackdown-on-philippine-ngos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/dismissal-of-terrorism-financing-case-highlights-crackdown-on-philippine-ngos\/","title":{"rendered":"Dismissal of terrorism financing case highlights crackdown on Philippine NGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City Prosecutor’s Office in Tacloban City has dropped<\/a> charges against the Leyte Center for Development Inc. (LCDE) for alleged violations of the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10168) due to insufficient evidence. In a resolution dated December 19, 2024, Prosecutor Lemuel C. Modesto ruled<\/a> that the testimonies of alleged former communist rebels against the staff of LCDE cannot be considered valid evidence without actual proof to support their claims. He emphasized<\/a> that co-conspirator statements require independent evidence of conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Gabriela Women\u2019s Partylist Representative Arlene Brosas welcomed the prosecutor’s decision, saying<\/a> that the dismissal of the case confirms that \u201cthese terrorism financing charges are nothing but desperate attempts to harass and intimidate humanitarian organizations and development workers who serve our most vulnerable communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secretary General of the human rights organization Karapatan, Cristina Palabay, emphasized<\/a> the significance of the decision, pointing out that the Marcos Jr. administration, through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), has been exploiting alleged rebel returnees to execute false affidavits based on fabricated stories, in exchange for financial incentives and livelihood opportunities.<\/p>\n

The LCDE case illustrates a wider trend of harassment directed at nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).The Community Empowerment Resource Network (CERNET), a Cebu-based NGO, also faces similar charges. 24 individuals who were charged in the case faced trial<\/a> on February 4, 2025, for allegedly providing financial and logistical services to communist rebels.<\/p>\n

The charges against CERNET,\u00a0 filed by the Department of Justice in 2024 under Republic Act No. 10168,\u00a0 faced international condemnation from various organizations, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. The UN expert expressed<\/a> concern that the targeting of CERNET members \u201cappears to be in direct retaliation for their legitimate and peaceful activities promoting economic, social, and cultural rights in the Philippines\u201d and \u201crisk obstructing the delivery of vital and well-protected humanitarian, human rights and development services\u201d. The Aktionsb\u00fcndnis Menschenrechte-Philippinen (AMP) published statements on CERNET\u2019s case on September 27, 2023<\/a>, and June 6, 2024<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n

In a separate case, community journalist Deo Montesclaros and activists Jackie Valencia (Karapatan rights worker), and Agnes Mesina (regional coordinator of Makabayan Cagayan Valley), as well as peasant activists Isabelo Adviento and Cita Managuelod were accused<\/a> of alleged terrorism financing (Republic Act No. 10168), continuing the government\u2019s crackdown on press freedom and dissent. A court warrant was issued<\/a> on January 10, 2025, while the news was released only on January 29.<\/p>\n

Montesclaros<\/a> is a correspondent for the alternative news outfit Pinoy Weekly, former correspondent for Northern Dispatch (Nordis) in the Cagayan Valley region, and member of the Filipino Freelance Journalists\u2019 Guild<\/a> (FFJ). After Frenchie Mae Cumpio, Montesclaros is the\u00a0second<\/a> journalist in the Philippines who was accused of alleged violations of laws combatting terrorist financing and money laundering.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to his critical work as a journalist – covering issues such as the environment, land reform, and human rights – he has become a target of multiple incidents of red-tagging, the first of which began in October 2020. He has also been surveilled by unknown elements in the past,\u201d said FFJ in a statement<\/a>. The practice of so-called \u201cred-tagging\u201d means that individuals or organizations are branded as \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FFJ statement condemned<\/a> the \u201callegation as a blatant attempt to restrict press freedom, and anyone who is critical of the Philippine government.\u201d The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), likewise condemned<\/a> the charges against Montesclaros and urged authorities to uphold press freedom and withdraw all charges. Nordis reported<\/a> that the charged activists have long been victims of “red-tagging,” with Adviento and Mesina previously facing trumped-up criminal charges and arrests.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo \u00a9 Raffy Lerma<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City Prosecutor’s Office in Tacloban City has dropped charges against the Leyte Center for Development Inc. (LCDE) for alleged violations of the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10168) due to insufficient evidence. In a resolution dated December 19, 2024, Prosecutor Lemuel C. Modesto ruled that the testimonies of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,61,63,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aktuelles-en","category-freedom-of-press","category-human-rights-defenders","category-human-rights-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10828"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10851,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828\/revisions\/10851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}