The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) condemns the Ferdinand Marcos Jr government for achieving the country’s exit from the dirty money grey list of Paris-based watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) by further strangling civic space.

In its February meeting, the FATF removed the Philippines from its grey list after the country supposedly acted on its deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) systems. These deficiencies were the reasons for the country’s grey-listing by the FATF since June 2021.

The FATF itself said that it “encourages the Philippines to continue its work in ensuring that its CTF measures are appropriately applied, particularly the identification and prosecution of TF (terrorism financing) cases, and are neither discouraging nor disrupting legitimate NPO (non-profit organizations) activity.”

The truth is that the Marcos Jr government used the FATF’s demands to further restrict and harass humanitarian and development NGOs as well as labor and social activists in the country. It has violated the human rights of many humanitarian and development workers, of labor and social activists, and of the members of communities that they serve.

Human rights group Karapatan presents the following data:

>> At least 166 individuals have been arbitrarily charged or have faced complaints regarding alleged violations of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Law (TFPSL) or have been arbitrarily designated using the ATA.

>> At least 73 individuals have been charged or have faced complaints regarding alleged violations of the TFPSL. At least 45 of these have been imprisoned due to alleged violations of the ATA and TFPSL.

>> Bank accounts of at least 17 NGOs have been frozen, resulting in the non-delivery of crucial services and capacity-building activities for poor rural and indigenous communities and threats against staff members of these NGOs.

The numbers are undeniable: the ATA and the TFPSL are being used by the Marcos Jr government to cripple Philippine civil society and severely restrict the country’s civic space. This is revolting, as NGOs in the Philippines receive meager funding and the charges connecting them to terrorist financing are trumped-up and flimsy.

Meanwhile, illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) continue to operate in the country, carrying out money laundering, engaging in illicit financial flows, and bribing government officials with huge amounts of money.