Labor leader in CAR face terror financing raps

BAGUIO CITY (February 17, 2025)— A labor leader in the Cordillera has been rapped with terror financing charges, the non-government NGO Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) said.

Condemning the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the government for these “alleged trumped-up charges”, the CTUHR said terror financing suits against long-time labor leader Mike Cabangon, “is an act of harassment as the case is baseless and must be junked immediately.”

Cabangon, spokesperson of national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno’s (KMU) Cordillera regional chapter, received on February 15, 2025, a complaint filed by the PNP’s Crime Investigation Detection Group – Regional Force Unit 14 (PNP-CIDG-RFU14) for two counts of violations of the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10168).

Cabangon, the CTUHR claimed, is the 12th activist and NGO leader in the Cordillera who was named in six separate terrorism financing cases that have been filed recently. 

CTUHR blamed the present administration for the increasing number of terrorism financing cases have been lodged against numerous activist and NGO leaders across the country. 



“These terrorism financing charges are being pressed against labor and NGO leaders whom the government accuses of having ties with the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which the government has designated as terrorist organizations,” the labor NGO said.

It further added that, “lodging of these charges demonizes said leaders and exposes them to various kinds of attacks.” It causes the freezing of their bank accounts and the bank accounts of their relatives. It embroils them in often lengthy court processes and may require them to post huge amounts of bails. It presents hindrances to their work, and therefore adversely affects the sectors and communities that they serve, CTUHR chided.

The labor NGO further criticized that filing of terrorism financing cases violates the right of those charged to the freedom of expression and association. “It can lead to violations of the right to life, liberty and security of person,” it stressed, while further blaming that, “it is an attack on the various rights of the sectors and communities that activist and NGO leaders serve.” In the case of Cabangon, it is an attack on the right to decent work of the workers and people of the Cordillera, the CTUHR reiterated.