Communist front organizations are exploiting indigenous peoples and fabricating human rights abuses as a pretext for asking for donations from the European Union and its member states, the military said Sunday.
“We are morally convinced that what [these communist] organizations are doing is simply to exploit our IPs, project a very dire human rights situation in our country, vilify our government by fabricating reports to cast doubt on the efficiency of our government, and then what? Ask for donations,” said Maj. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., chief-of-staff for civili-military operations.
“This is a pattern they have established. A fake ‘bakwit’ to ask EU funding. A fake advocacy to Save Our Schools and ask for more funding. Kill IPs and attribute it to government then ask for support to HR Watch,” he added.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, meanwhile, told EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles De Kerchove that the Belgian government, through different non-government organizations, has indirectly and unwittingly partnered with NGOs that act as a legal front for the CPP-NPA.
These Belgian NGOs include the SOLIDAGRO and Viva Salud and KIYO.
SOLIDAGRO has partnered with Philippine NGOs Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV); IBON Foundation (IBON); Karapatan; Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation, Inc. (MISFI); Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center Inc. (Salugpungan/STTICL; and, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP).
The Viva Salud, on the other hand, has partnered with the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW); Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU); Gabriela, IBON Foundation and ALCADEV. Lastly, KIYO has direct links with Gabriela, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), and Karapatan.
Parlade said RMP and the IBON Foundation partnered in the publication of subversive books being used by IP children in the Salugpungan and ALCADEV schools, which are teaching IP children to become child warriors, the military said.
“We have to expose this because it is so unfair to the other lay workers and sisters whom we in AFP, PNP [Philippine National Police] and government partner with for our value formation and moral reforms,” he added.
These entities, he said, cannot continue to hide under the cloak of the church, of whatever faith, and then provide funds to the NPAs, and other CPP front organizations like Karapatan, Gabriela, ACT, KMU, Anakbayan, LFS, and Bayan.
Majority of these organizations are members of the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS), which is also chaired by CPP founder Jose Maria Sison.
READ: ‘Stop funding Red fronts’
