THE government has started paralyzing finances of groups suspected of coddling insurgents, as the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) froze the bank accounts of a 51-year old religious organization for suspicion of being a conduit of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
Acting on the request of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the AMLC froze the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines’ (RMP) financial account with the Bank of the Philippine Islands.
In a resolution, the AMLC also ordered the bank to submit details of related bank accounts and proposed the filing of a petition before the Court of Appeals to extend the freeze order to six months.
The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 37 likewise issued an Asset Preservation Order against several bank accounts of the RMP over case violation of the Terrorism and Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.
RMP, a national organization with members coming from various religious congregations and dioceses, priests, laymen and missionaries, has been accused of financing the CPP and its armed wing New People’s Army in the countrysides.
In a statement sent via email to this reporter, the RMP has denied “any involvement in any form of financing terrorist persons and/or organizations.”
“We reiterate our position that donations and funding received by RMP are used to implement projects and programs to help the poor by providing the rural communities the help and services they deserve and that the government refuses to provide,” reads the statement of RMP, which claims to be “at the forefront of serving rural poor communities in the country for 51 years.”
“We have been living out our mission to collectively witness and act as Christ’s disciples with the rural poor, specifically with the poor farmers, agricultural workers, indigenous peoples and fisherfolks,” the statement further reads.
The group also assailed the freezing of the bank accounts.
“We deplore the Philippine government’s decision to freeze our bank accounts. This persistent harassment sprang from continuous barrage of malicious allegations that there is ‘probable cause’ that RMP is involved in terrorism financing.”
The group further claimed that they have long been under attack by the government, adding that several RMP members have been subject to a series of attacks.
They likewise hinted that freezing their assets has something to do with their “work with the poor, marginalized, and oppressed sectors in society.”
“What is evidently clear is that under the newly signed Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL), helping the poor and living out concretely our faith imperative and following the church mandate to build the Church of the Poor will put our liberty and life at risk,” they added.
RMP further said that some of their members have been charged with various crimes including perjury, arson, kidnapping, robbery, and frustrated murder.
Interestingly, the RMP statement bore signatures of an all-women regional representatives, representing various congregations from Caraga, Eastern and Western Visayas, Bicol, Northern Southern and Western Mindanao regions — Sr. Elsa Compuesto, Sr. Odilia Bulayungan, Sr. Edith Eslopor and Sr. Minela Alvarez, Sr. Aurora Bravo, Sr. Merlita Rodolfo, Sr. Minda Dueñas, SRM, Ms. Agnes Mesina and Sr. Rebecca Pacete