60% of disaster funds received by CPP-NPA used for rebel cause – AFP

From the Manila Bulletin (Apr 2, 2019): 60% of disaster funds received by CPP-NPA used for rebel cause – AFP

About 60 percent of funds received by front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) during disasters, such as typhoons “Yolanda” in 2013 and “Pablo” in 2017, went to the communist terrorists, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said Tuesday.



Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade (PCOO / MANILA BULLETIN)

A good 60 percent of the solicited funds go to the CPP-NPA. Only 40 percent is spent for rehabilitation if at all, said Brig. Gen. Antonio G. Parlade Jr., Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil Military Operations (J7), citing revelations of former rebels and organizers.

“Reports from California Filipino communities last November 2018 said that their donations went unaccounted (for) during the onslaught of Yolanda for instance. In the Visayas, they use CERNET or the Community Empowerment Resource Network as the CPP clearinghouse of all these fake advocacies,” Parlade said.

“We saw this pattern earlier in the past but it’s only now that we had solid evidence after the series of engagements we had with the European Union (EU) and some European governments,” he added.

Parlade said CERNET is based in the Visayas, particularly in Cebu and Bohol but extends up to Samar and Leyte.

Parlade said front groups such “Panday Bolig,” allegedly aligned with the Reds and disguising themselves as relief organizations, appeal to the kind-hearted, especially in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, etc. to provide them with funds but only a portion is spent for the actual rehabilitation of areas devastated by disasters.

He said in the days to come, they will expose the other “miracles” the CPP has been doing to deceive the people.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. Now they are in panic mode,” he said.

Parlade said these funds from NGOs which went to their pockets are what they use in recovering lost ground, even without their armed groups.

“These funds were used to organize their mass base, with livelihood projects that promote the CPP and highlight the neglect of government, rather partner with government to develop the countryside,” he said.

The AFP had earlier lauded the move of EU and Belgium ambassadors to look into the request of the Philippine government to audit the funds they donate to non-government organizations which local security officials earlier tagged as having links with the communist rebels.

“We appreciate the positive response of EU and Belgium to our formal plea to stop funding to Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), which is directly assisting the NPAs in Mindanao,” Parlade said.

“The same RMP has also partnered with Ibon Foundation in the publication of subversive books being used by IP children in the Salugpungan and Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development or ALCADEV schools which are teaching IP children to become child warriors. We have to expose this because it is so unfair to the other lay workers and sisters whom we in AFP PNP and government partner with for our value formation and moral reforms,” he added.

Parlade said missionaries cannot continue to hide under the cloak of the church, of whatever faith, and then provide funds to terrorist NPAs, and other alleged CPP front organizations like Karapatan, Gabriela, ACT, KMU, Anakbayan, LFS, Bayan or what they call the Makabayan bloc.


He said the RMP provides Supamil or Suporta sa Pamilya (family support) to CPP and NPA cadres and fighters directly and they cannot deny this.

“Those who will say this is a lie should be ready to refute this in a public debate. We are armed with the truth and nothing else. We are morally convinced that what these CPP organizations are doing is simply to exploit our IPs, project a very dire human rights situation in our country, vilify our government by fabricating reports to cast doubt on the efficiency of our government, and then what? Ask for donations,” Parlade said.

“This is a pattern they have established. A fake bakwit (displaced person) to ask for EU funding. Fake advocacy to save our communist schools and ask for more funding. Kill IPs and attribute it to the government then ask for support to HR (Human Rights) Watch. They put up programs like Literacy Numeracy (LitNum) for IPs, community-based health system for wounded NPAs, farmers resource centers and BREAD to feed NPAs and their families, Sustainable Agri (Sus-Ag), or Panday Bolig using disaster rehabilitation as cover,” he added.

Parlade said all of these are programs supported by funds coming from the EU and given to RMP-Northern Mindanao Region and all of these provide support to the Communist Terrorist Group.

“Deceit, lies, propaganda are what the CPP NPA have perfected over 50 years which have duped all of us, students, farmers, clergy, teachers, government workers, and international organizations like EU and UN. How much longer can we tolerate this scam now amounting to billions of pesos, which could have been spent for the needs of the genuinely impoverished and neglected, instead of the NPA and Joma’s minions?” Parlade said.

“The same deceit worked with Belgian funded Belgian NGOs in Manila, which have benefitted the same CPP front organizations. Most of these organizations are members of Joma’s (Jose Maria Sison) International League of People’s Struggles or ILPS and can be found in the ILPS website,” he added.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/04/02/60-of-disaster-funds-received-by-cpp-npa-used-for-rebel-cause-afp/