AMLC freezes accounts of religious group tagged as CPP front org.
THE financial noose continues to tighten over the neck of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) after the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) approved a resolution last March 12, 2021, freezing three bank accounts belonging to the ‘United Church of Christ in the Philippines’ (UCCP) Haran Center.
Under TF-36, the AMLC stayed the accounts of the group at the Philippine National Bank containing at least P600,000 and a real property under the name of the ‘Brokenshire Integrated Health Ministries, Inc.,’ for violation of RA 10168 or the ‘The Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act,’ passed by Congress in 2012.
The UCCP Haran Center is located along Fr. Selga Street, Madapo Hills, Bankerohan, Davao City in Davao del Sur.
According to government security officials, in the guise of formal education, the indigenous peole (IPs) of Mindanao, including minors, are indoctrinated with a series of communist ideologies, principles, and beliefs into being “Red warriors” for the CPP-NPA by communist cadres posing as “teachers.”
In September of 2020, some four members of an IP group from Davao del Norte pressed charges before the City Prosecutor’s Office against NPA leaders and administrators and board of directors of the UCCP Haran Center.
At least 48 personalities connected with the UCCP Haran Center were charged with child abuse, forced labor, trafficking in person, and violation of humanitarian law, said lawyer Marlon Bosantog, Legal Affairs Director of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
Much earlier, on January 15 2020, the Davao del Sur Regional Peace and Order Council, passed a resolution for the immediate closure of the UCCP Haran Center.
Davao del Norte Gov. Edwin Jubahib said the IPs inside the facility are being exploited by the communist rebel movement for “various terroristic activities.”
Davao Oriental Gov. Nelson Dayanghirang, RPOC-11 chairperson, accused the center of violating the Indigenous People’s Rights Act, as well as of committing child abuse and serious illegal detention offenses while engaging in human trafficking.
AMLC Executive Director Mel Georgie Racela, responding to criticisms, said the freeze order came after “a thorough and careful evaluation of the evidence.”
“Our investigation is not specifically directed to UCCP as an organization but to the funds and properties that are possibly related to the financing of terrorism,” Racela told GMA7 last April 2, 2021.
He also pointed out that the Davao Region’s Regional Peace and Order Council had recommended the immediate closure of the UCCP-Haran Center in January 2020 over alleged violations of IP’s rights and exploitation of the IPs for terroristic activities committed inside the facility.
In a separate statement, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said it “applauds” the decision of the AMLC, explaining further that the Harran Center
Is the “center of propaganda, education and recruitment by the terrorist CPP NPA NDF that have exploited a most vulnerable sector—our indigenous peoples– for various revenue streams that include extortion, human trafficking, and fundraisers that scammed local and international government and non-government organizations in the US and the EU.”
“UCCP Haran, in other words, functions as a hub where the CPP NPA NDF maintains logistics and conduct operations,” it added.
The task force further bared that until today, the center has been illegally detaining around 200 IPs and about “50 personalities” identified with CPP front organizations in Mindanao (with additional reports from the Philippine News Agency/PNA).
