STATEMENT
February 25, 2025
The Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG) denounces the Philippine government’s “well-earned exit” from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list which it said was at the expense of civic space. Among the showcase measures of the government were increasing judicial attacks to civil society organizations and development workers.
The Philippine government claims victory in its effort to achieve financial integrity, but undertakes abusive measures towards civil society organizations. Malicious secret efforts such as its “Project Exit Grey List” have caused incalculable damage to the legitimate work of development workers and their relationship to the communities they work with. They are also burdened with tedious legal process to prove their innocence after being red-tagged as “terrorist financers.”
Small community projects are falsely charged with financing terrorism while illegal activities of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) complicit in large-scale corruption, illicit financial flows and money laundering continue.
A study by the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) and CPDG found that the FATF’s recommendations are misused domestically to justify targeted financial sanctions and terrorism financing charges aginst development workers, human rights defenders, and civil society organizations. They are uses to curb dissent and criticism of the Marcos Jr. administration’s anti-people policies.
Moreover, laws such as the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 and The Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 enable broad and arbitrary designation of CSOs and individuals that has led to imprisonment, heightened surveillance and freezing of bank accounts.
The FATF removing the Philippines from its grey list without checks and balances proves that it does not uphold its own declared principles of proportionality or having a risk-based approach to non-profit organizations. Exiting the Philippines from its grey list without regard for its abuses in the name of the FATF shows disregard for fundamental freedoms and betrays the real direction of its influence under the pretense of upholding financial integrity.###