PH formally requests EU to cease funding CPP-NPA ‘fronts’

Esperon underscored that the funds are being used “to propagate terrorism” through international alliances and networks, and are utilized to finance terrorist front organizations to recruit, traffic, and exploit children to become child warriors. (PCOO)

MANILA — National Security Adviser and Vice Chairman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTFELCAC) Hermogenes Esperon formally wrote to the European Union (EU) to “immediately cease” its funding being funnelled to groups acting as legal fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army.

In a letter to Gilles De Kerchove, EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator dated March 26, Esperon said EU funds are being used to sustain terrorist activities of the longest existing communist terrorist organization in the world — the CPP-NPA — which is listed as a terrorist group by both the United States and the EU.

Esperon underscored that the funds are being used “to propagate terrorism” through international alliances and networks, and are utilized to finance terrorist front organizations to recruit, traffic, and exploit children to become child warriors.

He added that EU funds are also being used “to recruit and exploit vulnerable sectors such as indigenous people (IP), the systematic destruction of the latter’s culture and value system, and the murder of their leaders.”

Propagating terrorism

Esperon said the CPP-NPA has successfully established international alliances in different parts of the world through its front organizations purportedly to address social ills afflicting the society.

As admitted in the CPP’s publication entitled “Constitution and Program: Communist Party of the Philippines, 2016,” Esperon said the group has already created its networks while boasting a strategy that includes armed struggle and the use of progressive alliances.

“Their former communist members knew very well that the CPP-NPA is using front organizations, which are symbolically functioning in accordance with the same objectives and methods through violence,” he said.

Exploiting children

In the letter, Esperon listed three Belgian NGOs which have “indirectly and unwittingly partnered” with various NGOs in the Philippines that act as legal fronts of the CPP-NPA, namely the SOLIDAGRO, Viva Salud, and KIYO.

Among the listed Philippine NGOs were the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV); IBON Foundation; Karapatan; Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation, Inc.; the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines; the Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center, Inc.; the Alliance of Health Workers; the Kilusang Mayo Uno; Gabriela; and ACT.

Esperon said the ALCADEV and Salugpungan are identified as CPP-NPA alternative learning centers and schools.

“It is appalling that these entities are used to radicalize children with the end view of turning them into child warriors and future leaders of the CPP-NPA communist-terrorist groups,” the letter reads.

These learning institutions were found to be filled with books published by IBON Foundation, which contents “clearly show that it is intended to radicalize students by urging them to be grievously critical to the government.”

“The IBON books attempt to inculcate in the minds of the students fabricated and unfounded claims that the government is remiss in its obligation to its citizenry,” he added.

Recruiting IPs

The official said the CPP-NPA also recruits people from the vulnerable sector such as peasants, fishermen, and IPs, among others.

“Through these front organizations, the CPP-NPA is able to solicit and exploit funds from countries in the EU and the EU itself to support legitimate projects that are made to appear as aiding the poor,” he noted.

Esperon bared that 60 percent of the funding received by the Filipino NGOs are diverted to the NPA through their “triple or multiple funding scheme.”

The scheme is said to be implemented by simultaneously submitting a single proposal to different countries.

“Countries or funding agencies who have given their seal of approval are unaware that they are funding a particular project, which had already been funded by other countries or funding agencies.

As a result, a single project receives double funding, Esperon said, hence the front organizations can easily clear and liquidate the use of the solicited money when audited.

To date, holdings on these schemes are based on reports but Esperon said pieces of evidence are being consolidated to be provided to EU as soon as completed.

DFA concurrence

In an official communication dated March 27, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. concurred with the calls to immediately stop the funds flowing to local groups fronting for the CPP-NPA.

Locsin affixed a portion of the Philippine statement that he delivered at the Ministerial Segment of the 62nd Session of the Commission on Narcotics and Drugs held in Vienna, Austria last March 14.

“Communists had a chance to be part  of a real freedom struggle but they rejected as not in their style the peaceful Philippine people power revolution whose victory ignited the liberation of the Soviet bloc and spelled the doom of every Cold War fascist dictatorship in the Free World,” Locsin speech read.

“In this endeavor, EU NGOs support a cause unquestionably lethal but totally unredeemed by any prospect of success. Their generous contributions promise at best the prospect of a small and ragged parade under a cracked marble arch to the strains of a broken Hallelujah. As always, the Philippines fights its battles alone; it needs no help; it fears no opposition from any quarter; but it wouldn’t mind a little.”

Terrorism funding illegal

Michel Goffin, Belgian Ambassador to the Philippines, during Thursday’s turnover of documents, said EU and Belgium consider it illegal to fund terrorism,  whether directly or indirectly.

Louis Dey, Programme Manager on Governance (Human Security & Justice), accepted a copy of the documents for the EU.