Baguio City – Non-government organizations (NGOs) in Northern Luzon gathered on October 12, 2024 in a concerted effort to assert civic spaces and people’s right to development amid attacks on civil society organizations which includes the harassment and vilification of humanitarian NGOs and development workers.
Eleven NGOs came up with a unity statement and united to affiliate with the Defend NGO national alliance and establish its Northern Luzon chapter.
Defend NGO is an alliance of civil society organizations established in 2024 in response to the increasing judicial attacks on development and humanitarian NGOs. This broad network aims to stop the attacks on NGOs and development workers and to dismantle repressive legal mechanisms used against them such as the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012, Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 and Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) amendments.
Defend NGO is working towards increasing public awareness, sympathy and support for development and humanitarian NGOs that are under attack. It includes lobbying for policy reforms both domestically and internationally. It aspires to expand their alliance and strengthen the cooperation among civil society groups, advocates and human rights defenders.
Defend NGO alliance recorded 59 development workers and 21 NGOs in the country with harassment cases and charges related to terrorism. NGOs like the Community Empowerment Resource Network (CERNET), Leyte Center for Development (LCDe) and Citizens’ Disaster Response Center (CDRC) were charged with terrorist financing cases. Bank accounts of these organizations were frozen impeding their delivery of development services. Anti-terrorism financing laws are also used against people’s organizations. The targeted financial sanction to the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) following the terrorist designation of its 4 leaders. AMIHAN National Federation of Peasant Women also received a freeze order from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
The participants in the conference came up with a Declaration of Unity. A collective statement that addresses the escalating challenges faced by development NGOs and development workers.
The Declaration of Unity reads that “CSOs and NGOs are facing tighter regulations and greater financial repression and political harassment. Anti-terrorism financing laws are weaponized the government’s efforts to narrow and control civic space seriously restricts the rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression.”
The NGOs present in the said conference reported their respective experiences and incidents of red-tagging and harassment.
“These actions seek to weaken the voices that advocate for the marginalized, to undermine the movements that challenge the status quo, and to silence the calls for accountability from those in power. These actions also deny the much needed services to the most marginalized and vulnerable sectors and deny them the right of development,” the statement read.
Additionally, the NGO group named Professor Wilfredo Alangui, the Chairman of the Board of the Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services (CordisRds), as the lead convenor of the Northern Luzon Defend NGO campaign. Co-convenors are Ms. Leonida Tundagui- Pangket, Executive Director of the Katinnulong Daguiti Umili iti Amianan- Peoples Partner in Northern Luzon, Inc.(KADUAMI).
Reference:
Leonida Tundagui-Pangket
Co-convenor
Defend NGO-Northern Luzon
+639190951458
