The ACT Alliance is deeply concerned about the recent actions of the Philippine government to list a number of activist and Human rights defenders. On 21 February 2018, the government through its Department of Justice filed a petition seeking to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army as terrorist organisations after the government cancelled peace negotiations with the groups. One of the names of the list is Beverly Longid, who has no affiliation to either parties.

Beverly Longid is one of the CDPE (CSO partnership for development effectiveness) co-chairs and assumes an important role to foster development effectiveness principles and practices in the Philippines. She does so with the aim to achieve greater respect for human rights and the protection of human rights defenders. This is work that adheres to non-violent methods. The ACT Alliance is a member of the CDPE.

Beverly Longid and her work should not in any way be attached to the definition of terror. ACT Alliance calls for a prompt removal of the name of Beverly Longid from the Philippine Government’s list of “terrorists” and underlines the urgency in giving attention to protection of the civic space for Beverly Longid and other HR-activists.

#activistsnotterrorists #civilrights