Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 30) — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is confident international funding will soon stop for a number of organizations it has accused of having links to communist rebels.
In a statement on Saturday, the AFP said it was “pleased” with the European Union’s commitment to investigate the government’s allegations that EU funds have been donated to groups acting as legal fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA).
“The EU did not just commit to look into the voluminous documents the NTF (National Task Force) has submitted, it even committed to enlist a third party firm to audit the funds they donated to NGOs we reported to have links with the terrorist CPP-NPA,” the AFP statement read.
In a statement Friday, the EU said the financial audit is slated for April, following the receipt of documents with specific allegations from the Philippine government last March 28.
“Should the allegations be established, the EU immediately would take full legal action,” it added.
The CPP-NPA is in EU’s list of terrorist organizations. But in the Philippines, the government’s move seeking to tag communist rebels as terrorists is still pending before a local court.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. formally wrote to Gilles De Kerchove, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator last March 26, urging the bloc to stop funding certain groups in the Philippines as the money is being used for terrorism.
Esperon said Belgian non-government organizations have “indirectly and unwittingly partnered” with CPP-linked groups such as the Ibon Foundation, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and Anakbayan, among others. The groups have denied they are communist fronts and filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights against the government’s red-tagging.
“We are confident that we will succeed in proving our case,” the AFP said. It added that the Belgian government has said it is “now conducting an investigation pursuant to the submission to ensure that their donations comply with their strict legal requirements.”
President Rodrigo Duterte has formed a national task force to end the local communist armed conflict, which has been going on for five decades. He walked away from the on-and-off peace negotiations with the Reds in November 2017, as both sides accused each other of ceasefire violations.
Authorities are now on a crackdown against members of the CPP-NPA, as well as consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines – the umbrella organization of communist groups, and other personalities and groups supposedly in cahoots with it.
