Cebu NGO consortium slams government’s silence on UN’s anti-terror law queries

CEBU, Philippines – Representatives of the Community Empowerment Resource Network (CERNET) criticized the Marcos administration on Monday, December 16, for failing to respond to United Nations (UN) special rapporteurs who asked about the use of anti-terror laws against human rights defenders in the country.

The controversy stems from terrorism financing complaints filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against CERNET and 27 of its members on May 10. Authorities alleged the group provided P135,000 to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in 2012.

On May 14, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 74 in Cebu City issued arrest warrants for the members of the consortium of non-governmental organizations.

On August 29, UN special rapporteurs Mary Lawlor, Gina Romero, Ben Saul, Reem Alsal, and Laura Nyirinkindi sent a letter to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., seeking clarification on the factual and legal grounds for the charges against CERNET and its members.

The special rapporteurs gave the national government 60 days to respond before publishing the letter and the president’s reply. Malacañang confirmed receiving the letter in September but did not address the UN experts’ concerns and questions, showed Lawlor’s website.

“It speaks [volumes] of what kind of government we have if they are not able to respond accordingly to what the UN is demanding them to give clarifications on,” Estrella Catarata, former executive director of CERNET and one of the accused, told a news conference.

In the same letter, the UN experts urged the national government to take all necessary measures to stop alleged violations of the rights of NGO workers and to prevent their recurrence, citing incidents of red-tagging and harassment against some of the accused.

“We are concerned that these actions seem to demonstrate a deliberate misapplication of counter-terrorism legislation, including [combatting the financing of terrorism] law, for the purpose of discrediting legitimate human rights and humanitarian activities,” the letter read.

Twenty-two of the 27 accused were able to post bail amounting to P200,000 each on May 15, and none of them were detained as opposed to authorities’ claims on social media, according to CERNET’s legal counsel.

A Cebu City court also dismissed the charges for two deceased individuals that were included in the DOJ’s complaint.

Consortium of NGOs

In a press release dated May 16, the Army alleged that CERNET has been used by terrorists since 2001 “to support its logistical and financial needs.”

Catarata denied the military claims, stating that the NGO consortium was established to provide funding to small people’s organizations in the Visayas that lack access to government or international funding.

According to CERNET staff, their services include legal assistance and special funding projects for community-based groups, including, but not limited to, fisherfolk, farmers, women, the differently-abled, and child rights advocacy organizations.

Catarata said CERNET receives funding from international foundations that regularly conduct technical and financial audits on the projects they implement.

Founded in 2001, CERNET is composed of nine NGOs that operate in the Visayas region, specifically in Leyte, Negros Oriental, Cebu, and Bohol.

Targeted

Catarata told reporters that CERNET’s bank accounts have been frozen since 2023.

CERNET’s lawyers, Ian Manticajon and Susan Echavez, told Rappler that this has severely impacted the group’s capacity to support more than 200 people’s organizations which they have supported in the past.

For Echavez, the NGO is being targeted because its members have been known to be critical of the government.

In 2021, Elena Tijamo, a member of the Central Visayas Farmers Development Center (FARDEC), a member organization of the CERNET consortium, was abducted from her home and found dead in a Manila hospital a year later.

In 2023, activists Dyan Gumanao, a former CERNET worker, and Armand Dayoha, a staff member at the Visayas Human Development Agency (VIHDA), were abducted at the Cebu pier. They were released days later after allegedly being interrogated and coerced to surrender as “communist rebels.”

“This case paralyzed CERNET…. The international community is looking closely into this,” Manticajon said.

The first arraignment was held on June 27 for two of the accused. The remaining defendants were arraigned on September 19.

Representatives from the German and Swiss embassies in Manila, as well as a European Union delegation, attended the September arraignment as observers. The trial is scheduled to begin on February 4, 2025. – Rappler.com