MALACAÑANG appealed to the European Union (EU) on Friday, March 29, to stop funding groups allegedly acting as "legal fronts" of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA).
In a press briefing with Palace reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo told the EU that communist fronts would only use the funds to topple President Rodrigo Duterte's administration.
"The EU should [stop] because the funding will be used in destabilizing the government," he said.
"If these are legal fronts and their main purpose is to break down the government, then the EU who's funding it should reconsider," he added.
Panelo's statement came after the Philippine government, through National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., asked the EU to cease its funding being funneled to groups deemed to be legal fronts of the CPP-NPA.
Esperon, in a March 26 letter addressed to EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles De Kerchove, named Solidagro, Viva Salud, and Kiyo, three Belgian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as those that "indirectly and unwittingly partnered" with NGOs in the Philippines that are legal fronts of the communists.
Listed Philippine NGOs were the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development, Ibon Foundation, Karapatan, Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc., Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Salugpungan Ta'Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center Inc., Alliance of Health Workers, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Gabriela, and ACT.
Esperon told the European bloc that the funds are being used to "propagate terrorism" through international alliances and networks, and are utilized to finance terrorist front organizations to recruit, traffic, and exploit children to become child warriors.
He also claimed that funds are being used to "recruit and exploit vulnerable sectors, such as indigenous people, the systematic destruction of the latter's culture and value system, and the murder of their leaders." (SunStar Philippines)