By By Juliane Judilla
Five Cagayan Valley-based activists, including a community journalist, were filed with trumped-up charges of terrorism financing following the visit of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to the country from January 21 to 25, 2025.
Among the five were peasant activist and former political prisoner Isabelo Adviento, fellow peasant activist Cita Managuelod, Karapatan human rights worker Jackie Valencia, Makabayan-Cagayan Valley coordinator Agnes Mesina, and community journalist Deo Montesclaros.
In a subpoena issued by the Cagayan Provincial Prosecutor and the Criminal Investigation Group of the Philippine National Police on January 10, 2025, they accused the five of being involved in gathering supplies for armed revolutionary groups back in 2018—a claim that was not supported by any sufficient evidence.
Rights group Karapatan denounced the case, noting that there has been an uptick in such cases in the run-up to the visit of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to the Philippines, where FATF representatives met with Philippine government officials on January 20 to 21, 2025. FATF is a global body that purportedly sets international standards to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
The group also noted that prior to this, arrest warrants had been issued against several development worker groups. Paghidaet sa Kauswagan Development Group (PDG) in Negros, Cebu-based Community Empowerment Resource Network (CERNET), Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), and the Leyte Center for Development (LCDe) are among the development NGOs that have been slapped with terrorism financing charges.
“The Marcos Jr. regime has been accusing activists left and right of financing terrorism in its attempt to remove the Philippines from the FATF’s ‘grey list’ of governments deemed to have fallen short of FATF’s standards for combating money laundering and terrorism financing,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
“Those accused have had their assets frozen and been subjected to civil forfeiture proceedings, thus derailing their projects meant to alleviate the suffering of poor and marginalized communities,” added Palabay.
Meanwhile, the media outfit Pinoy Weekly also denounced the accusations against Montesclaros, who works as a multimedia journalist for the outlet. They expressed that such charges “reek of the government’s relentless red-tagging spree” and represent a continuous attack “in a bid to stifle free speech.”
“With its seemingly boundless resources, the government is trying to gag free speech whenever anything remotely critical is said or published. From non-government organizations to people’s organizations and journalists, terrorism financing charges are the latest red-tagging trend intended to paralyze individuals and organizations,” the media outfit said in a statement.
Montesclaros has worked as a multimedia journalist for Pinoy Weekly since 2021. He is also a correspondent for the Baguio-based alternative media news site Northern Dispatch since 2017./PT
