LEGITIMATE DISSENT A youth leader in Baguio City addresses a crowd of protesters in this photo taken in December last year. Student groups are part of the alliance of local activists staging
protest actions in the city to denounce government abuses and to add their collective voice to issues affecting indigenous peoples and the poor, among other sectors. —EV ESPIRITU
BAGUIO CITY—Progressive group Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) on Thursday denounced the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) for freezing their accounts on July 12, apparently in relation to a government resolution that classified four of its members as terrorists.
“Hindi kami nagpopondo ng terorista (CPA does not finance terrorists),” said CPA secretary general Sarah Dekdeken at a Thursday news conference, asserting that their assets are dedicated to funding community services and relief operations in indigenous peoples (IP) communities in the Cordillera.
Local banks have not yet frozen the assets of Cordillera activists Windel Bolinget, Jennifer Awingan Taggaoa, Sarah Abellon Alikes and Stephen Tauli at the instructions of the AMLC following their designation on June 7 as terrorists by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC). The four activists are either officers or members of CPA.
But the bank account of Taggaoa’s husband, Ronald, was allegedly blocked by AMLC last week, even though he was not part of ATC Resolution No. 41, which identifies his wife Jennifer, Bolinget, Alikes and Tauli as supposed members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
According to Baguio City Councilor Jose Molintas, one of their lawyers, they are filing a petition in an Urdaneta City court in Pangasinan on July 25 to remove the four activists from the government’s official terror list.
Parallel legal action is also being undertaken to ensure that their personal assets, like the payroll of the activists’ working family members, are not touched by AMLC, Molintas said on Thursday.
Ronald Taggaoa, who teaches at Saint Louis University, was notified by his bank that his account was flagged through an AMLC “sanction freeze order (AMLC Resolution No. TF-67, series of 2023).” He is a leader of the SLU teachers union as well as a member of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), an organization that has allegedly been the subject of profiling by the Department of Education.Bolinget’s wife, Elvie, teaches at Benguet State University in the neighboring Benguet town of La Trinidad.
“[I] don’t have a joint bank account with Windel,” she told the Inquirer.
FIGHTING TERROR TAG Elvie Bolinget (third from left) says her husband, Cordillera Peoples Alliance chair Windel Bolinget, is longtime activist and not a terrorist, contrary to the designation made by Anti Terrorism Council covering him and three other CPA activists. CPA secretary general Sara Dekdeken (second from left) says the government has frozen the group’s assets on July 12. —JETHRO BRYAN ANDRADA
Properties, too?
“So far we can still access our bank accounts … But we are also looking into the possibility our properties would be seized. If they take our house, where will we go? All these are issues we have to consider and prepare for. It has been stressful, but our family has no choice but to face it,” Elvie added.On July 12, the bank accounts of CPA were frozen, apparently because of ATC Resolution No. 41, said Dekdeken.
She said CPA and its lawyers would protect the families of Bolinget, CPA’s incumbent chair, and the three other activists, and may even reach out to government agencies like the Commission on Higher Education to ensure that Roland’s and Elvie’s income sources are secure.
“The antiterror law (Republic Act No. 11479) is so vague that we do not know the scope of the orders that will freeze the assets of designated terrorists,” Dekdeken said.
ATC Resolution No. 41 accused Bolinget, Alikes, Taggaoa and Tauli of handling communist rebel propaganda and recruitment as nonarmed personnel of a so-called NPA “white area (sometimes referred to as a white zone).” Rebels have designated combat zones as their “red areas.”
Their terrorist designation allowed AMLC to freeze and investigate the assets of the four activists based on Section 25 of RA 11479. AMLC is also empowered to target terrorist accounts by RA No. 10168 (Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012).
Elvie said her husband was among 600 people whom the Department of Justice had wanted a Manila court to designate as terrorists, alongside leaders of the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The DOJ’s petition, which also implicated Molintas and Tauli’s sister, former United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli Corpuz, was dismissed last year by Manila Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar.
UN concern
Meanwhile, a group of UN rapporteurs has expressed concern over the continued Red-tagging of Cordillera activists, fearing this may negatively affect their rights to freedom of assembly and association.
In an eight-page communique submitted to the government, the UN special rapporteurs brought to the Philippines its concerns on the alleged harassment against IP rights activists Bolinget, Tauli, Taggaoa, Alikes, Florence Kang, Niño Joseph Oconer and Lucia Lourdes Gimenez.
The signatories are Mary Lawlor, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; David Boyd, special rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; and José Francisco Cali Tzay, special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.
The document was sent to the government on May 8 but was made public only on Thursday, explaining that they had to keep this confidential for 60 days to give the government enough time to respond.
However, they said that the government did not reply within the time frame given but assured that once a reply is received, it will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
The UN experts cited in their communication the criminal indictments against the rights defenders, “which we fear may be in retaliation for their peaceful work on indigenous peoples, land and environmental rights.”
“We also wish to express our serious concern regarding the Red-tagging of some of the above mentioned human rights defenders by police officials on social media and the unfounded allegations that they are affiliated with armed groups, in apparent attempts to discredit their legitimate human rights activities,” they said.
—WITH REPORTS FROM JETHRO BRYAN ANDRADA AND ABBY BOISER
RELATED STORY:
AMLC freezes bank accounts of red-tagged farmers’ group