The left-leaning Gabriela Women’s Party-list group is allegedly receiving financial assistance from any foreign governments and their agencies.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., vice-chairperson of the
National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, made the disclosure as he testified before the Commission on Elections in a virtual hearing on the petition to cancel the registration of the said group.
The NTF-ELCAC filed a petition to cancel the registration of Gabriel Women’s Party (GWP), Gabriela Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership and Action (GABRIELA), Inc and the Gabriela Assembly of Women and Reforms (GAWR) in the Comelec’s party—list system.
In his testimony, Esperon said the action of these groups to receive money from any foreign government and agencies is a violation of the Section 2 paragraph 5, Article 9 of the Philippine Constitution which provides that “political parties which receive financial assistance from any foreign government and their agencies, can have their registration with the Comelec cancelled.”
The Gabriela has yet to respond to Esperon’s testimony as of press time.
Esperon also made reference to the Rule 2, Section 8 (D) of the Comelec Rules of Procedures which states that “receiving support from any foreign government is one of the grounds for the cancellation of the registration of any political party.
“With the continued legal action against GWP, the NSA is exposing the party-list’s willful and deliberate circumvention of the provisions of the Constitution and Comelec rules,” Esperon said in a statement.made available to reporters covering the House of Representatiives.
Esperon disclosed that Gabriela is allegedly receiving Belgian financial support, through Belgian accredited NGOs that were subjected to external financial audit by the international accounting firm MAZARS which contracted by the Belgian government to audit or to review the Programs 2014-2016 and 2017-2021.
Citing report of the MAZARS, Esperon said the Gabriela, together with the IBON Foundation and Karapatan are the local partners of Viva Salud VZW, a Belgian accredited NGO.
He added that based on the AMLC report, Viva Salud send remittance to Gabriela amounting to P1.811 million on March 28, 2019 and six remittances from Intl. FCSTONE Ltd. Of London, United Kingdom amounting to P1.058 million to P2.19 million from September 2015 to March 2019.
In an order dated November 27 and signed by presiding Commissioner Socorro B. Inting, the Comelec’s Second Division ruled that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) “has the legal standing to file” a petition to void the registration of Gabriela Women’s Party for receiving foreign government funding and supporting terrorists’ activities.
The case stemmed from the document entitled “Overview of Non-Government Actors in the Philippines-Program 2017-2021,” shared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Belgium to Philippine delegates during a meeting in Brussels in February 2019.
