The Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance (CPA) has filed a motion for reconsideration after the Court of Appeals (CA) denied its petition seeking for the unfreezing of its assets.
The assets of CPA which is an activist group were frozen due to its association with Windel Bolinget who is currently accused of terrorism.
The CPA asked the CA through a petition to determine the basis of the sanctions levied upon the organization including those from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), which froze the organization’s bank accounts through powers granted by Republic Act No. 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020.
However, the CA denied the petition, saying that the legal remedy of requesting basis of sanction under the ATA is a right given only to designated persons and therefore must be filed specifically by Bolinget and not the legal entity of the CPA.
Under the same vein, the CPA also is not itself a designated entity unless the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) directly declares the organization a terrorist entity.
But with Bolinget being the incumbent chairperson of the CPA, the CA noted in its statement that the association of CPA and the terrorist-designated activist justified such an asset freeze.
Additionally, the CPA said that as a party in the United Nations (UN), the Philippine government has the authority to issue asset freezes pursuant to UN security bylaws and legislation intended to combat international terrorism.
Bolinget, the CPA’s president, is among 4 activists in the Cordillera region who were designated as terrorists by the ATC in 2023.
Said activists recently posed the first legal challenge to the constitutionality of the ATA in a Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Baguio. The ATA, among other provisions, gives the ATC the power to declare individuals and organizations as terrorist threats without having to show evidence or cause for such declarations.
The legal challenge has stalled due to recently-issued rules putting into question which court has jurisdiction over the case.
