THE Philippine government has asked Belgium and other countries of the European Union (EU) to stop providing funds to certain organizations in the Philippines which have ended in the coffers of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA).
A Philippine delegation has met with officials of the EU and the European Parliament and the European Commission with a request to “stop the flow of funds to identified Communist terrorist front organizations.”
The Belgian government, according to Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for civil-military operations, has just released the first tranch of 621,000 euros (about R36.6 million) of a total 15-million-euro grant to certain non-government organizations (NGOs) undertaking aid programs for the poor and the marginalized. The Philippine delegation, however, said that some of these NGOs are actually Communist front organizations.
The front organizations, according to Alex Paul Monteagudo, director-general of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, are able to divert some 60 percent of the donated funds to the Communist Party which then uses the funds to support its activities such as rallies and the purchase of weapons.
Gilles de Kerchove, coordinator of EU Counter-Terrorism, vowed to look into the information. Gunnar Weigand, managing director of the European External Action Service, promised to conduct an independent financial audit this month.
In the same week that this report came out, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said that several candidates in the midterm election to be held in May have paid at least R200 million for “permits to campaign” and “permits to win.”
DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said there are now 349 politicians in the DILG “watch list” who have given such “protection money” – including 11 governors, five vice governors, 10 provincial board members, 55 mayors, 21 vice mayors, 41 councilors, 126 barangay captains, 50 barangay councilors, and eight other barangay officials.
Secretary Año admitted there is no airtight information to warrant the filing of charges against these officials. Very probably, these officials see they have to pay these amounts until government forces succeed in eliminating the NPA threat in their areas.
These two reports – from Brussels, Belgium, and from the DILG – show one angle of the CPP-NPA problem, how it is able to support its operations with funding from various sources. This may help explain how it has managed to survive all these years when other Communist Parties in the world have long been disbanded.
At the start of his administration, President Duterte declared his intention to reach out to the CPP-NPA leaders in a bid to end their rebellion, meeting them in talks and agreeing to a number of social, economic, and political reform measures. The peace talks have since broken down but the hope remains that they will yet resume and they will reach agreement, and the decades-long rebellion will finally come to an end.
