Merian Aldea
Office of Women and Gender Concerns-AMRSP
Using Security and Exchange Commission’s Memorandum Circular No. 15 (series 2018)
Guidelines for the Protection of SEC Registered Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) From Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Abuse (November 7, 2018) .
The Duterte Administration did it again!
This tyrannical move infringes on non-governmental organizations and foundations’ rights to organize and form associations, specifically on their freedom or capacity to freely conduct or perform their advocacies, as well as the right to privacy of the officers, members, clients or beneficiaries of any of those considered as non-profit organizations. This new memorandum is an extension of the mounting repressive policies insidiously implemented by the Duterte government in installments, so as not to betray its real intent of curbing all platforms for dissent.
In a statement, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) said this is part of the “continuing crackdown on dissent and opposition” that may “threaten the very existence of non-profit organizations, stifle their voices, and disrupt their advocacies.” The lawyers’ group said that the SEC, through this memorandum, can share information with law enforcement agencies and has enabled itself to “perform virtually any act necessary to conduct investigations of violations (not only those consummated but also those about to be committed), such as the power to subpoena witnesses, compel attendance, take evidence, and even enlist the aid and deputize all enforcement agencies — civil and military.”
We must call to scrap this memo due to its economic, political, military, cultural and psychological consequences for the Filipinos. This is militarization of NGOs and foundations, whose primary aim is to assist people in the margins of the society in their efforts to access a quality of life which currently beyond them. These NGOs and foundations seek to do a task, where the government is failing significantly.##
(Collated by Ecumenical Women’s Forum, March 2019)
Association of Women in Theology (AWIT) 