The Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG) expresses its strongest solidarity with the Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women following the unjust ruling of Manila RTC Branch 18, which ordered the forfeiture of the organization’s bank accounts based on trumped-up terrorism financing claims by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
We see this brazen decision, issued on 6 August 2025, under Judge Carolina Icasiano-Sison, as part of the escalating weaponization of the law against legitimate people’s organizations. The ruling, which freezes and forfeits Amihan’s funds intended for their stakeholder communities, is nothing short of political persecution.
Amihan is not a threat to national security. It is a grassroots women’s organization working tirelessly to advance genuine agrarian reform, food security, disaster response, and the rights and welfare of rural women. By targeting Amihan, the government is attacking the very communities that have long been neglected and marginalized—poor peasant women, farmers, and fisherfolk.
The freeze order—seizing around ₱200,000 in peso and dollar accounts—is an attempt to cripple Amihan’s capacity to carry out its development work. It also starkly reveals the gross double standards in governance: while peasant women organizers are penalized for lawful, humanitarian work, public officials accused of plundering hundreds of millions in taxpayers’ money remain untouched and shielded.
This ruling further confirms the repressive role of the Anti-Terrorism Act, AMLC, and NTF-ELCAC in enabling state-led attacks on dissent, organizing, and the right to development. Such institutional harassment—through judicial means—add to the long list of human rights violations already suffered by Amihan: red-tagging, illegal arrests, surveillance, and even extrajudicial killings of its members and leaders.
The statement of Amihan Chairperson Zenaida Soriano resonates loudly: ‘This is not merely an attack on one organization—it is an attack on the democratic rights of all civil society organizations in the Philippines. It seeks to silence voices working for justice and development, especially those in the countryside’.
CPDG stands firm with Amihan and all people’s organizations under attack. We urge our justices to ensure that laws are not used against CSOs and hinder development work. We call on civil society, international institutions, and fellow development advocates to condemn this misuse of state mechanisms, to stand in defense of democratic space, and to hold the Philippine government accountable for its repression of civil society.
#HandsOffAmihan #HandsOffPeoplesOrganizations #Defend civic space #AssertPeoplesRights